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.
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001665:Binding Sites; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D015195:Drug Design; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D015842:Serine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases