Protease inhibitor (pharmacology)
Class of antiviral drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Protease inhibitors (PIs) are medications that act by interfering with enzymes that cleave proteins. Some of the most well known are antiviral drugs widely used to treat HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and COVID-19. These protease inhibitors prevent viral replication by selectively binding to viral proteases (e.g. HIV-1 protease) and blocking proteolytic cleavage of protein precursors that are necessary for the production of infectious viral particles.
This article needs attention from an expert in Pharmacology. The specific problem is: non-antiviral types in Template:Enzyme inhibition. (January 2020) |
Protease inhibitors that have been developed and are currently used in clinical practice include:
- Antiretroviral HIV-1 protease inhibitors—class stem –navir[1]: 23
- Hepatitis C virus NS3/4A protease inhibitors—class stem –previr[1]: 26
- 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (including, but not limited to, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) inhibitors—class stem –trelvir[2]
Given the specificity of the target of these drugs there is the risk, like with antibiotics, of the development of drug-resistant mutated viruses. To reduce this risk, it is common to use several different drugs together that are each aimed at different targets.
In addition to those non-human proteases listed above, inhibitors of human proteases may be used to treat cancer. See the articles matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (–mastat) and proteasome inhibitor (–zomib).[1]