Test system for developing HIV protease inhibitors

摘要

It was proposed in Patent Application P 3800233.7 to test the HIV protease for example using the authentic autologous substrate, the gag precursor molecule of human immunodeficiency virus. Even more suitable for screening tests would be a test system which permits the activity of HIV protease to be determined by an easily detectable signal. In this application, active enzymes are introduced as substrate of HIV protease, in such a form that these enzymes are preferentially coexpressed with the protease on a recombinant plasmid or the viral protease from recombinant host cells is admixed. The protease is then detected indirectly via the activity of the enzyme remaining after proteolytic action.