VIRAL GENES AS TARGETS FOR ANTIVIRAL DRUGS

我们研究的总体目标是确定有潜力成为有用的抗病毒药物的新化合物，并研究有前途的化合物在细胞，分子和生物化学水平上的作用。为此，我们通过体外选择方法获得了对活性化合物具有抗性的人巨细胞病毒（HCMV）和人免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）株。 使用耐药性作为标记，我们正在确定哪些HCMV和HIV基因突变产生耐药性病毒株。这些基因的鉴定提供了对抗病毒药物作用的详细了解。 此外，由基因指定的蛋白质可能是抗病毒药物的新靶点。需要使用GCG分析软件的具体目的是将病毒基因的序列与相关的病毒、哺乳动物和原核基因进行比较，以更好地了解病毒基因的功能和新抑制剂的作用。

The overall objective of our research is to identify new compounds which have the potential to become useful antiviral drugs and to investigate how promising compounds act at the cellular, molecular and biochemical level. Toward this end, we have derived by in vitro selection methods human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) strains which are resistant to active compounds. Using drug resistance as a marker, we are in the process of identifying which HCMV and HIV genes have mutated to produce drug resistant virus strains. Identification of such genes is providing detailed understanding of antiviral drug action. Furthermore, the proteins specified by the genes may be new targets for antiviral drugs. The specific objective requiring the use of GCG analysis software is to compare the sequence of the viral genes to related viral, mammalian, and prokaryotic genes to better understand the function of the viral gene and the action of new inhibitors.