Marine natural products as lead anti-HIV agents.

Current anti-HIV drugs have extreme side effects and resistance to these drugs develops rapidly. The marine environment holds an unprecedented number of unusual chemical structural classes with activity against HIV. We review the literature on anti-HIV activity of marine natural products and discuss the efficacy of different structural classes.

Early detection of mixed mutations selected by antiretroviral agents in HIV-infected primary human lymphocytes.

A growing concern in the pursuit of new therapies for HIV-1 infection is the potential for the virus to develop drug resistance. With the advent of modern antiretroviral therapy and the common use of combined modalities, it is difficult to identify in the clinic the mutations associated with a specific drug. In general, drug selection of mutants using a relevant cell system, such as primary human lymphocytes, is a good prognosticator of what will happen in humans. In this study, HIV-infected human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were exposed, at a concentration of 1- to 10-fold the median effective antiviral concentration, to the nucleosides (-)-beta-2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thia-5-fluorocytidine [(-)-FTC] (-)-beta-2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine (3TC), 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxyuridine (CS-87, AZDU), 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxy-5-methylcytidine (CS-92, AZMC), 2',3'-didehydro-3'-deoxythymidine (d4T), beta-L-2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxy-5-fluorocytidine (beta-L-D4FC), beta-L-2',3'-dideoxyadenine SATE[beta-L-ddAMP-bis(tbutylSATE)], beta-L-5-fluoro-2',3'-dideoxycytidine (L-FddC), and the protease inhibitors nelfinavir and amprenavir (VX-478). Virus from the culture supernatant was amplified by PCR and analysed by both HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and protease line probe assay. All the L-nucleoside analogues tested selected for the V184 mutation, including the L-pyrimidine nucleosides 3TC (-)-FTC, beta- L-FddC, beta-L-D4FC and the beta-L-purine nucleoside. beta-L-D4FC also selected for K/R65 in addition to V184, indicating that these two mutations are linked and compatible in vitro. No pattern of mutations leading to resistance or reduced susceptibility was discerned with d4T. Rapid genotyping analysis revealed the different kinetics and mutations obtained by in vitro selection in HIV-infected cells exposed to nucleoside analogues and protease inhibitors.

Synthesis and anti-HIV and anti-HBV activities of 2'-fluoro-2', 3'-unsaturated L-nucleosides.

The synthesis of L-nucleoside analogues containing 2'-vinylic fluoride was accomplished by direct condensation method, and their anti-HIV and anti-HBV activities were evaluated in vitro. The key intermediate 8, the sugar moiety of our target compounds, was prepared from 1,2-O-isopropylidene-L-glyceraldehyde via (R)-2-fluorobutenolide intermediate 5 in five steps. Coupling of the acetate 8 with the appropriate heterocycles (silylated uracil, thymine, N4-benzoylcytosine, N4-benzoyl-5-fluorocytosine, 6-chloropurine, and 6-chloro-2-fluoropurine) in the presence of Lewis acid afforded a series of 2'-fluorinated L-nucleoside analogues (15-18, 23-26, 36-45). The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antiviral activities against HIV-1 in human peripheral blood mononuclear (PBM) cells and HBV in 2.2.15 cells. Cytosine 23, 5-fluorocytosine 25, and adenine 36 derivatives exhibited moderate to potent anti-HIV (EC50 0.51, 0.17, and 1.5 microM, respectively) and anti-HBV (EC50 0.18, 0.225, and 1.7 microM, respectively) activities without significant cytotoxicity up to 100 microM in human PBM, Vero, CEM, and HepG2 cells.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'- dideoxy-5-fluorocytidine (D4FC) analogues: discovery of carbocyclic nucleoside triphosphates with potent inhibitory activity against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase.

The discovery of a novel cytosine nucleoside, beta-D-2', 3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxy-5-fluorocytidine (D-D4FC), as a potent antihuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) agent led us to synthesize a series of analogues and derivatives of beta-D-D4FC that could be more selective and also possess increased glycosidic bond stability. The synthesized D-D4FC analogues were evaluated for anti-HIV-1 activity, anticancer activity, and cytotoxicity in various cells. The biological data demonstrated that the 5-substitution of beta-D-D4FC with bromine (6c) and iodine (6d) resulted in the loss of antiviral activity, and the alpha-D anomer (7a) of D-D4FC was also devoid of activity. The 5-fluorouracil analogues (6b and 7b) of D-D4FC were less potent and more cytotoxic than the parent compound, whereas the beta-L-D4FU (11) showed both potent anti-HIV-1 activity and cytotoxicity. N4- and 5'-O-acyl derivatives (17, 15a-c) of beta-D-D4FC exhibited comparable antiviral activity to beta-D-D4FC. In contrast, the N4-isopropyl derivative (20) of beta-D-D4FC was not active against HIV-1, even at 100 microM. The carbocyclic analogues (26a,b) of D4FC demonstrated weak activity against HIV-1 and no toxicity in various cells. The triphosphates (27a,b) of the carbocyclic nucleosides demonstrated potent inhibitory activity against recombinant HIV-1 reverse transcriptase at submicromolar concentrations. Of the compounds tested as potential anticancer agents, beta-D-, alpha-D-, and beta-L-D4FU (6b, 7b, 11) showed inhibitory activity against rat glioma and modest activity against human lung carcinoma, lymphoblastoid, and skin melanoma cells.