Mechanistic studies comparing the incorporation of (+) and (-) isomers of 3TCTP by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase

Research was conducted to examine the kinetics for the incorporation of dCMP, ddCMP and (+)SddCMP and its unnatural beta-L-(-) enantiomer, (-)SdCMP, into DNA/DNA and DNA/RNA primer-templates catalyzed by HIV-1 RT. The objective was to gain an insight into the differences between RNA-dependent and DNA-dependent polymerization. Results suggest that perturbations on the ribose ring of cytidine analogues decrease the rate and efficiency of incorporation but improves the binding affinity.