[3'-Mercapto-3'-deoxythymidine-5'-triphosphate as a terminator of DNA synthesis catalyzed by RNA-dependent DNA-polymerases]

3'-Mercapto-3'-deoxy-TTP was synthesized and tested as DNA chain terminator nucleotide for calf thymus alpha DNA polymerase, E. coli DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment), terminal deoxyribonucleotidyltransferase (Bollum enzyme) and reverse transcriptase from AMV- and HIV-I-viruses. It was shown that the compound terminates DNA chain elongation by reverse transcriptases selectively and irreversibly. Other tested DNA polymerases do not use this nucleotide analogue as a substrate. 3'-Mercapto-3'-deoxythymidine was tested on lymphoblastoid T-cell line MT-4 with HIV-viruses and shown to suppress viruses as efficiently as 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine.