Reverse transcriptase kinetic mechanism

Hsieh, J. C., Zinnen, S., and Modrich, P. (1993). Kinetic mechanism of the DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase. / Biol. Chem. 268, 24607-24613. 

Reverse transcriptase (RT) plays a critical role in the early steps of the life of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (304), and for over a decade has been one of the major targets of AIDS therapy. Polycitone A (280) was found to be a potent general inhibitor of retroviral reverse transcriptases and cellular DNA polymerases (305). Polycitone A exhibited potent inhibitory capacity of both RNA- and DNA-directed DNA polymerases. It inhibits retroviral reverse transcriptases (RTs) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV), murine leukemia virus (MLV) and mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)] as efficiently as cellular DNA polymerases of both DNA polymerases a and p and the prokaryotic Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I. The mode and mechanism of inhibition of the DNA-polymerase activity associated with HIV-1 RT by polycitone A (280) have been studied. The results suggest that the inhibitory capacity of the DNA polymerase activity is independent of the template-primer used. The RNase H function is hardly affected by this inhibitor. Polycitone A has been shown to interfere with DNA primer extension, as well as with the formation of the RT-DNA complex. Steady-state kinetic studies demonstrate that this inhibitor can be considered as an allosteric inhibitor of HIV-1 RT. The target site on the enzyme may be also spatially related to the... 

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