Simplified catechin-gallate inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase

Systematic simplification of the molecular structures of epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate to determine the minimum structural characteristics necessary for HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibition in vitro resulted in several compounds that strongly inhibited the native as well as the A17 double mutant (K103N Y181C) enzyme, which is normally insensitive to most known nonnucleoside inhibitors. The synthesis of structurally simplified epicatechin and epigallocatechin gallate analogues and their in vitro HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activities are described.