KINETIC-ANALYSIS OF INTERACTION OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS REVERSE-TRANSCRIPTASE WITH SOME ALKALOIDS

A study was made of the interaction between human immunodeficiency vir us reverse transcriptase and some alkaloids. Of nine alkaloids examine d, three compounds, namely berberine, palmatine, and sanguiritrine, in hibited reverse transcriptase, the efficiency of inhibition being depe ndent on the nature of the template-primer. Kinetic analysis and circu lar dichroism revealed that the alkaloids inhibit reverse transcriptas e by a complicated mechanism involving both enzyme-alkaloid interactio n and binding of the latter to the template.