atazanavir

Mechanism of Action

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Atazanavir binds to the active site HIV protease and prevents it from cleaving the pro-form of viral proteins into the working machinery of the virus. [1] If the HIV protease enzyme does not work, the virus is not infectious, and no mature virions are made. [2] The azapeptide drug was designed as an analog of the peptide chain substrate that HIV protease would cleave normally into active viral proteins. More specifically, atazanavir is a structural analog of the transition state during which the bond between a phenylalanine and proline is broken. [3] Humans do not have any enzymes that break bonds between phenylalanine and proline, so this drug will not target human enzymes.

  1. ^ https://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB01072
  2. ^ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC280500/
  3. ^ Graziani, Amy L (June 17, 2014). "HIV protease inhibitors". UpToDate.