ABSTRACT
HIV integrase participates in the successful completion of the HIV-1 viral life cycle by mediating the integration of HIV-1 DNA into the host genome, making inhibitors of this enzyme attractive agents for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. HIV-1 integrase is encoded as one of the gene products of the HIV-1 pol gene and is a member of the polynucleotidyl transferase (recombinase) protein superfamily (Mizuuchi, 1997). Based on biochemical, structural, and phylogenetic analyses, HIV-1 integrase can be subdivided into three protein domains. The largest domain of HIV-1 integrase is the catalytic core. This domain contains a highly conserved triad of acidic residues, the D,D-35-E motif, which play a key role in the catalytic activities of the enzyme (Engelman and Craigie, 1992; Kulkosky et al., 1992).
