Nucleobase modified neamines with a lysine as a linker, their inhibition specificity for TAR-Tat derived from HIV-1.

Nucleobase modified neamines with a lysine as the linker (NbK-neamines) were synthesized and their binding toward hairpin RNAs derived from HIV-1 activator region were studied. NbK-neamines were bind those RNAs with micro molar level of binding affinities and compete with corresponding activator peptide for TAR RNA, but not for RRE RNA. GbK-neamine denotes the highest binding affinity with TAR RNA, three to five times higher than other three NbK-neamines. GbK-neamine could be a candidate of potential inhibitor for TAR-Tat.