Differential inhibition of polymerase and strand-transfer activities of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase.

A new class of inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase obtained by the systematic structural simplification of epicatechin and epigallocatechin gallates are also shown here to inhibit DNA-strand-transfer, a process critical to the completion of the HIV-1-RT reproduction and to recombination-associated mutation of the virus. Up to 80-fold selectivity for DNA-strand-transfer inhibition over polymerase inhibition was observed for a defined subset of these agents. Such specific DNA-strand-transfer inhibitors may have important therapeutic potential.