A multicenter collaboration between the NCI-Frederick Molecular Targets Discovery and HIV Drug Resistance Programs, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, and the University of Pittsburgh has used high-throughput robotics to screen several libraries, totaling 250,000 compounds, for small-molecule inhibitors of HIV RNase H function. Secondary screening against bacterial and human RNase H has addressed whether selectivity for the retroviral enzyme can be achieved. Several structural classes of RNase H inhibitors have been identified by this strategy, the most potent of which was the hydroxylated tropolone beta-thujaplicinol. Derived from the bark of the western cedar Thuja plicata, beta-thujaplicinol inhibited HIV-1 RT/RNaseH at a concentration of 0.2 uM, while the IC50 for human RNase H was 6.0 uM and that of the bacterial enzyme >50 uM. In addition, beta-thujaplicinol was shown to synergize with the nonnucleoside inhibitor calanolide A, strengthening contentions from other groups that both the DNA polymerase and RNase H activities of HIV-1 RT can be simultaneously targeted. Vinylogous ureas constitute a second structural class of RNase H inhibitors, and a patent covering these inhibitors has been submitted. Structural studies to define the binding site of the most potent RNase H inhibitors are currently underway.
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