Small Dumbbell Oligonucleotides Inhibitors of RNase H Activity of MOMULV Reverse Transcriptase

Abstract

The small dumbbell oligonucleotides containing loops of phosphodiester (OL-1), two trimethylene, C₃ moieties in each loop (OL-2) and phosphorothioate (OL-3) linkages were synthesized. Incubation of OL-1 and OL-2 with S-1 nuclease generated break down products whereas incubation of OL-3 did not result in significant cleavage. Their binding to moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase was evaluated by PAGE band mobility shift assays. The OL-3 bound more strongly to the reverse transcriptase than OL-1 and OL-2. The dissociation constants evaluated using PAGE band mobility shift assays were of the order of 10^-7. Investigation of inhibition of RNase H activity of reverse transcriptase showed that the OL-3 is a better inhibitor of the retroviral RNase H activity than both OL-1 and OL-2. Thus OL-3 may be used as RNase H inhibitor. Our studies demonstrated that this particularly designed oligonucleotide (OL-3) displays an IC₅₀ of 25 nM in its inhibition on the reverse transcriptase RNase H activity, a magnitude lower than that of first nucleotide reverse transcriptase of HIV-1, tenofovir, introduced by Gilead Science in the market.