Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Protease Inhibitor 1

USA

Hepatitis Virus C NS3 Protease Inhibitor 1 is a potent peptide inhibitor of hepatitis virus C NS3 protease. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 protease is essential for polyprotein maturation and viral propagation, and it has been proposed as a suitable target for antiviral drug discovery. An N-terminal hexapeptide cleavage product of a dodecapeptide substrate identified as a weak competitive inhibitor of the NS3 protease activity was optimized to a potent and highly specific inhibitor of the enzyme. The effect of this potent NS3 protease inhibitor was evaluated on replication of subgenomic HCV RNA and compared with interferon- (IFN-), which is currently used in the treatment of HCV-infected patients.