To: mike head who wrote (32 ) 1/7/1998 8:41:00 PM From: Pseudo Biologist Read Replies (3) | Respond to
Mike, nothing much to say. I called the company a couple of weeks ago and got their material: 10Q, press clips, prospectus. Got up to date, sort of, on what's known about the mode of action of T20 by doing a few literature searches. As you may know crystal structures of three different versions of what is called the "core" domain of HIV protein gp41 were reported last year. This "core" domain includes the peptide that roughly corresponds to T20. It's possible that these 3D pictures (aka crystal structures -- not sure of your biology/chemistry background, so please yell if this is too slow or too fast) will make it easier for someone to design small, orally available, molecules that may act like T20. The latter is a polypeptide and as such has to be given as an injection or in an implantable pump for sustained release into the blood stream.
