Disarming a Deadly Virus (German version, 2000)

Summary: Proteases are a class of enzymes that degrade proteins by cutting the bond between the amino acids that make up the protein. Scientists realized that enzymes act on specific molecules called substrates by binding to them at active sites. Thus, enzyme inhibitors can be developed which have greater affinity for the active site than the natural substrate, and hence will win the fight to bind with the enzyme. Intensive research led to the development of several effective protease inhibitors. The AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s and HIV was recognized to be a retrovirus by the mid-1980s. While researching cancer treatments in the 1970s, scientists had discovered that retrovirus proteins are not made as individual units, but rather as complexes which then have to be cut up by a protease. Initially, scientists attempted to keep HIV from multiplying once it entered a cell by stopping the replication of the viral genes. Meanwhile, scientists also were attempting to inhibit or stop the manufacture of viral proteins and were researching the structure of the HIV protease. In 1996, scientists found that a cocktail made with protease inhibitors and AZT type drugs was very effective.