AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, July 28, 2003
Staff Medical Writers

"Inhibitory antibodies to the reverse transcriptase (RT) of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) can be used to block the life cycle of the virus," researchers in Israel explained.

In their study, A. Herschhorn and coauthors at Tel Aviv University "isolated five different human single chain Fv (ScFv) antibodies specific for HIV-1 RT from an antibody phage display library."

"Three of these antibodies inhibited the RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (RDDP) activity of RT and one of the three (F-6) inhibited also its DNA-dependent DNA polymerase (DDDP) activity," test results showed. "Unexpectedly, F-6 binds to the carboxyl terminus of the large subunit of RT, which contains the ribonuclease H (RNase H) domain, and not the polymerase domain of the protein."

"Moreover, this binding did not inhibit the RNase H enzymatic activity," according to the report. "To further characterize F-6 antibody, two cyclic synthetic peptides based on the amino acids sequences of the CDR3 of F-6 were synthesized. Peptide F-6CDRH3, with the sequence of CDR3 of the heavy chain, inhibited the RDDP activity of RT while peptide F-6CDRL3, with the sequence of CDR3 of the light chain, had no effect on this activity of RT."

"These results indicate that some of the effects of F-6 are mediated by the CDR3 of the heavy chain," the researchers concluded. "The antibodies identified here will be further tested as intrabodies for their capacity to protect human cells from HIV-1 infection."

Herschhorn and colleagues published their study in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Proteins and Proteomics (Recombinant human antibodies against the reverse transcriptase of human immunodeficiency virus type-1. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2003 May 30;1648(1-2):154-63.

For additional information, contact A. Hizi, Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine, Department Cell Biology and Histology, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.

The publisher's contact information for the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Proteins and Proteomics is: Elsevier Science B.V., P.O. Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of AIDS and HIV, Biotechnology, Enzymology and Immunology.

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

Reference

Herschhorn A, Admon A, Hizi A. "Recombinant human antibodies against the reverse transcriptase of human immunodeficiency virus type-1", Biochim Biophys Acta. 2003 May 30;1648(1-2):154-63.

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