PEPSIN ASSAY ONE OF THE EASIEST APPROACH FOR PRESCREENING OF HIV-PROTEASE INHIBITORS

Abstract

Author(s): Singh K.P., Kumar A., Prasad R.

As HIV is quickly becoming one of the world deadliest viruses, one of the biggest problem in curing AIDS is as HIV can easily develop resistance against the provided drugs. HAART (Highly active antiretroviral therapy) is the only one hope for the AIDS patients till now, which can increase the survival period of the AIDS patient by sustaining the viral load below 50 copies/ml. in blood serum, in which we use combination of three to five drugs targeting different stages of replication cycle of HIV. HIV-protease inhibitors are the indispensable part of this therapy. There is a great need of screening of anti-HIV agents from chemical as well as natural resources. But this process is not so easy because it needs huge amount of money for required chemicals, as well as highly sophisticated labs. Here we have developed a substitute of this problem unto some extent, i.e." Pepsin Assay", it is a substitute of HIV- protease, both of them belongs to same Aspartyl family of enzyme & share same signature sequence at the active site. So we hope that development of this assay will enhance the screening programme of HIV-protease inhibitors.