June 7, 2006
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By M.L. Baker, Ziff Davis Internet
June 5, 2006
Researchers at Stony Brook University's Center for Structural Biology wanted to understand how an essential HIV protein switched between two known conformations.
They used computer simulation to model the transition and identified a new conformation that helps explain HIV's vulnerability to a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors.
The research at the university, based in Stony Brook, N.Y., could eventually lead to more effective forms of AIDS drugs.
Small molecule drugs, typically taken as pills, tend to work by gumming up cellular machinery, usually proteins. This happens because both proteins and drug molecules have specific shapes. Such drugs are identified by finding molecules that fit into crevices or cavities in the protein.
Drug researchers often make crystals of proteins to examine the shape of these crevices and design drug molecules that fit the protein more snugly.
But in the case of HIV protease, crystal structures were little help. In the crystallized forms, the cavities and crevices in the protein were very small, too small to let drug molecules in.
Stony Brook's Carlos Simmerling used a supercomputer to model how HIV protease switched between two shapes, and saw a new conformation where the cavities open wider.
For the complete article, see http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1972257,00.asp
Posted by rab5 at 04:10 PM
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