An electrochemical method to monitor HIV related enzymes could help identify treatments. 

Current treatment for Aids uses anti-retroviral drugs to target several HIV related proteins and inhibit their ability to infect cells, produce new copies of the virus or cause disease. But, resistance to these drugs can arise rapidly. Nucleic acid and peptides that can bind to HIV enzymes have also been shown to be potent inhibitors. Now, Canadian scientists have developed a versatile electrochemical method to screen peptides for Aids therapy. 

Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz and Kagan Kerman, from the University of Western Ontario, attached a ferrocene tag to the peptides and immersed them in a solution of HIV enzymes. As the inhibitors bind to the HIV enzymes, the well-known ferrocene electrochemical signal changes.  

'The authors have demonstrated a fast and inexpensive screening method for peptide inhibitors of HIV infection-related enzymes' says Nils Metzler-Nolte, an expert in electrochemistry and bioinorganic chemistry at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. 'This method has the potential to compete with established colorimetric or fluorimetric assays in drug discovery' he adds.  

'We are currently working on the adaptation of our system into a microarray format that will enable the multiplexed detection of HIV enzymes, as well as the high-throughput screening of candidate inhibitors of these enzymes,' says Kraatz.  

Kraatz claim's that this method could also be used to detect a wide range of other proteins or biomolecules thanks to the versatility of the system, which could be tuned depending on the targeted molecule.  

Lorena Tomas Laudo 

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