The United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services

Myrexis, Inc.

Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dfh Therapeutics, Inc.

Eric O Freed

Carl Thomas Wild

Graham P Allaway

Feng Li

Karl Salzwedel

Theodore John Nitz

David E Martin

David Eugene Martin

The present invention concerns novel pharmaceutically active triterpene amine derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions containing the same, their use as medicaments, and the use of the compounds for the manufacture of specific medicaments. The present invention also concerns a method of treatment involving administration of the triterpene amine compounds. Specifically, the compounds are derivatives of betulinic acid having substitutions at one or more of the C-3, C-28 and C-19 positions as further described herein. The novel compounds are useful as antiretroviral agents. In particular, the novel compounds are useful for the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1).

Triterpene amine derivatives

Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by disrupting the processing of the viral Gag capsid (CA) protein (p24) from the CA-spacer peptide 1 (SP1) protein precursor (p25) is disclosed. Amino acid sequences containing a mutation in the Gag p25 protein, with the mutation resulting in a decrease in the inhibition of processing of p25 to p24 by dimethylsuccinyl betulinic acid or dimethylsuccinyl betulin, polynucleotides encoding such mutated sequences and antibodies that selectively bind such mutated sequences are also included. Methods of inhibiting, inhibitory compounds and methods of discovering inhibitory compounds that target proteolytic processing of the HIV Gag protein are included. In one embodiment, such compounds inhibit the interaction of the HIV protease enzyme with Gag by binding to the Gag proteolytic cleavage site rather than to the protease enzyme. In another embodiment, viruses or recombinant proteins that contain mutations in the region of the Gag proteolytic cleavage site can be used in screening assays to identify compounds that target proteolytic processing.

Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by disruption of the processing of the viral capsid-spacer peptide 1 protein

Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by disrupting the processing of the viral Gag capsid (CA) protein (p24) from the CA-spacer peptide 1 (SP1) protein precursor (p25) is disclosed. Amino acid sequences containing a mutation in the Gag p25 protein, with the mutation resulting in a decrease in the inhibition of processing of p25 to p24 by dimethylsuccinyl betulinic acid or dimethylsuccinyl betulin, polynucleotides encoding such mutated sequences and antibodies that selectively bind such mutated sequences are also included. Methods of inhibiting, inhibitory compounds and methods of discovering inhibitory compounds that target proteolytic processing of the HIV Gag protein are included. In one embodiment, such compounds inhibit the interaction of the HIV protease enzyme with Gag by binding to Gag rather than to the protease enzyme. In another embodiment, viruses or recombinant proteins that contain mutations in the region of the Gag proteolytic cleavage site can be used in screening assays to identify compounds that target proteolytic processing.

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Frederick, MD, United States of America

Eric O Freed