"Senseless" antiviral polyribonucleotides: poly (1-propargylinosinic acid)

Previous work has shown that novel amphipathic oligo and polyribonucleotides exhibiting secondary structure in solution are potent inhibitors of HIV and HCMV replication and cytopathicity in tissue culture. It was hypothesized that the mechanism(s) of action for these compounds might be inhibition of retroviral reverse transcriptase (RT) and/or viral uptake by cells. Pursuit of the essential pharmacophore has led to the discovery of poly (1-propargylinosinic acid) (10), an HIV and HCMV-active polyribonucleotide lacking the secondary structure previously thought to be essential for the observed antiviral activity.