New potentially useful therapeutic tools for the sexually transmitted HIV infection have been identified by Anna Bernardi at the University of Milan, Franck Fieschi and colleagues in France, Spain and Italy.
DC-SIGN and Langerin are two C-type lectins involved in the initial steps of HIV infection: the former acts as a viral attachment factor and facilitates viral invasion of the immune system, while the latter has a protective effect. Bernardi and Fieschi have successful synthesised potential antiviral compounds targeted against DC-SIGN using a common fucosylamide anchor.
Their DC-SIGN affinity was found to be similar to that of the natural ligand Lewis-X (LeX). The compounds were also found to be selective for DC-SIGN and to interact only weakly with Langerin. All these results point to the potential for these molecules to be used as therapeutic tools to fight the disease.
This hot piece of synthesis is currently free to access for four weeks:
Second generation of fucose-based DC-SIGN ligands : affinity improvement and specificity versus Langerin
Manuel Andreini, Daniela Doknic, Ieva Sutkeviciute, José J. Reina, Janxin Duan, Eric Chabrol, Michel Thepaut, Elisabetta Moroni, Fabio Doro, Laura Belvisi, Joerg Weiser, Javier Rojo, Franck Fieschi and Anna Bernardi
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05573A,
