Abstract

A number of anti-HIV agents act by inhibiting specific steps in the lifecycle of HIV.  Inhibition of reverse-transcriptase (RT), a multi-functional enzyme is an important option. The interaction of 2, 2´-(Diazinodimethylidyne)-di-(o-phenylene)-dibenzoate (HZ) with HIV1-RT was studied to explore its possible use in anti-HIV therapy. This novel hydrazine derivative undergoes strong interaction with a number of amino acid residues present in its catalytic domain, some of which are catalytically important like Asp-110, Asp-185 and Asp-186: significant among them is the Asp-186 residue that is highly conserved. Our studies may be useful in the field of structure based drug development in anti HIV therapy.

Key words: HIV 1, drug development, NNRTI, Hydrazine derivative, molecular modelling.