Medicinal chemist translational medicine

Once the viral RNA has been translated and the large polyprotein has been processed to form individual viral proteins, new viral particles begin to form. Packaged in each virion are two copies of fully unspliced viral RNA. To be packaged into the virion, the RNA dimerizes in a highly orchestrated process involving a self-complementary stem-loop interaction. Such HIV-specific RNA events may prove useful for fumre therapeutic intervention, although they have so far received relatively little attention by medicinal chemists. 

---