![]() ![]() ![]() To design the right chemical key, you have to figure out the most efficient, llowest-energy configuration for the molecule - the one that Mother Nature herself came up with. There are millions of ways that the bonds between the atoms in the enzyme's molecules could twist and turn. The problem is that enzymes are far tougher to crack than your typical lock. The strategy has been compared to designing a key to fit one of Mother Nature's locks. Such enzymes, known as retroviral proteases, play a key role in the virus' spread - and if medical researchers can figure out their structure, they could conceivably design drugs to stop the virus in its tracks. For more than a decade, an international team of scientists has been trying to figure out the detailed molecular structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus found in rhesus monkeys.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |