Reverse Transcriptase Jumps and Gaps

Reverse Transcriptase and Retroviral Replication

Within each viral particle, retroviruses package two copies of a single-stranded RNA genome of about 10 kb. All of the viral genomes contain three major genes, arranged in the order: 5 ́-gag–pol–env-3 ́, and some retroviruses may also have accessory genes (e.g. vif, vpr, tax, etc...). Structural proteins such as MA (matrix protein), CA (capsid protein) and NC (nucleocapsid protein) are encoded wi...

REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE AND cDNA SYNTHESIS

Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

4 Optimal HIV-1 suppression often is difficult to achieve and maintain with currently available antiretroviral drugs, and viral resistance eventually emerges to many drugs. Chronic antiretroviral therapy is also associated with complications such as body fat redistribution, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia, abnormal glucose metabolism, lactic acidosis, pancreatitis, avascular necro...

Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Although the incidence of HIV infection among women is increasing, the proportion of women in clinical trials that evaluate interventions for the treatment of HIV infection and its complications has historically been lower than the proportion of women in the HIV/AIDS patient population. Therefore, most knowledge about the efficacy of antiretroviral drugs and the adverse reactions associated wit...

A reverse transcriptase ribozyme

A highly evolved RNA polymerase ribozyme was found to also be capable of functioning as a reverse transcriptase, an activity that has never been demonstrated before for RNA. This activity is thought to have been crucial for the transition from RNA to DNA genomes during the early history of life on Earth, when it similarly could have arisen as a secondary function of an RNA-dependent RNA polymer...