Retroviruses are those viruses which utilize a ribonucleic acid (RNA) intermediate and a RNA-dependent deoxyribonucteic acid (DNA) polymerase, reverse transcriptase, during their life cycle. Retroviruses include, but are not limited to, the RNA viruses of the Retroviridae family, and also the DNA viruses of the Hepadnavirus and Caulimovirus families. Retroviruses cause a variety of disease states in man, animals and plants. Some of the more important retroviruses from a pathological standpoint include human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1 and HIV-2), which cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in man, hepatitis B virus, which causes hepatitis and hepatic carcinomas in man, human T-cell lymphotrophic viruses I, II, IV and V, which cause human acute cell leukemia, and bovine and feline leukemia viruses which cause leukemia in domestic animals.
Proteases are enzymes which cleave proteins at specific peptide bonds. Many biological functions are controlled or mediated by proteases and their complementary protease inhibitors. For example, the protease renin cleaves the peptide angiotensinogen to produce the peptide angiotensin I. Angiotensin I is further cleaved by the protease angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) to form the hypotensive peptide angiotensin II. Inhibitors of renin and ACE are known to reduce high blood pressure in vivo. An inhibitor of a retroviral protease will provide a therapeutic agent for diseases caused by the retrovirus.
The genomes of retroviruses encode a protease that is responsible for the proteolytic processing of one or more polyprotein precursors such as the pol and gag gene products. See Wellink, Arch. Virol. 98 1 (1988). Retroviral proteases most commonly process the gag precursor into core proteins, and also process the pol precursor into reverse transciptase and retroviral protease. In addition, retroviral proteases are sequence specific. See Pearl, Nature 328 482 (1987).
The correct processing of the precursor polyproteins by the retroviral protease is necessary for the assembly of infectious virions. It has been shown that in vitro mutagenesis that produces protease-defective virus leads to the production of immature core forms which lack infectivity. See Crawford, J. Virol. 53 899 (1985); Katoh, et al., Virology 145 280 (1985). Therefore, retroviral protease inhibition provides an attractive target for antiviral therapy. See Mitsuya, Nature 325 775 (1987).
Current treatments for viral diseases usually involve administration of compounds that inhibit viral DNA synthesis. Current treatments for AIDS involve administration of compounds such as 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT), 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (DDC) and 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (DDI) and compounds which treat the opportunistic infections caused by the immunosuppression resulting from HIV infection. None of the current AIDS treatments have proven to be totally effective in treating and/or reversing the disease. In addition, many of the compounds currently used to treat AIDS cause adverse side effects including low platelet count, renal toxicity and bone marrow cytopenia.