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. 1990 Dec;34(12):2337–2341. doi: 10.1128/aac.34.12.2337

Novel bacteriological assay for detection of potential antiviral agents.

T M Block 1, R H Grafstrom 1
PMCID: PMC172057  PMID: 2088188

Abstract

A prototype assay for the initial screening of potential antiviral agents that uses bacterial growth on selective media is described. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease recognition sequence was inserted into the tetracycline resistance (Tet) protein encoded by plasmid pBR322 of Escherichia coli. Expression of both the HIV protease and the modified Tet protein prevented growth in the presence of tetracycline. However, inhibition of the HIV protease restored tetracycline resistance. Thus, potential HIV protease inhibitors can be identified by their ability to confer tetracycline resistance to this bacterial strain. The assay is simple, rapid, and inexpensive, and this concept can be applied to the search for inhibitors of other viral proteases.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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