title: Hepatitis C virus NS3/4A protease.
abstract: Despite an urgent medical need, a broadly effective anti-viral therapy for the treatment of infections with hepatitis C viruses (HCVs) has yet to be developed. One of the approaches to anti-HCV drug discovery is the design and development of specific small molecule drugs to inhibit the proteolytic processing of the HCV polyprotein. This proteolytic processing is catalyzed by a chymotrypsin-like serine protease which is located in the N-terminal region of non-structural protein 3 (NS3). This protease domain forms a tight, non-covalent complex with NS4A, a 54 amino acid activator of NS3 protease. The C-terminal two-thirds of the NS3 protein contain a helicase and a nucleic acid-stimulated nucleoside triphosphatase (NTPase) activities which are probably involved in viral replication. This review will focus on the structure and function of the serine protease activity of NS3/4A and the development of inhibitors of this activity.
authors.affiliation: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. kwong@vpharm.com
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Kwong
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lipovsek
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Raybuck
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D001681:Biological Assay; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000201:enzymology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C084422:NS3 protein, hepatitis C virus; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases; C093542:NS4 protein, hepatitis C virus