FIG 1.

Screening strategy to identify inhibitors of RNA-protein complexes. (A) Schematic diagram of the Tat hybrid system. A plasmid encoding the HIV LTR, RRE RNA target, and a reporter gene is coexpressed with a plasmid encoding a fusion protein of the HIV Tat activation domain and a heterologous RNA-binding domain from the HIV Rev protein. A productive interaction between the RNA and RNA-binding protein confers activation of the reporter gene. (B) Schematic showing that inhibitors of the RNA-protein interaction are identified by a decrease in reporter signal. (C) Screening data from a small-molecule screen for inhibitors of Rev-RRE complexes.