Bevirimat

Bevirimat, the prototype Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) maturation inhibitor, is highly potent in cell culture and efficacious in HIV-1 infected patients. Maturation inhibitors are an experimental class of antiretrovirals that inhibit Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) particle maturation, the structural rearrangement required to form infectious virus particles. Unlike protease inhibitors, Bevirimat (BVM) blocks the cleavage of the Gag capsid precursor (CA-SP1) to mature capsid (CA) protein, resulting in the release of immature, noninfectious viral particles. Bevirimat specifically inhibits a single cleavage event, the final processing step for the Gag precursor where p25 (CA-SP1) is cleaved to p24 (CA) and SP1. The protease-dependent bevirimat resistance and replication levels can be explained by differences in CA/p2 cleavage processing by the different proteases.