Research Area: Infection
Biological Activity:
Zalcitabine is a nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NARTI).Zalcitabine is an analog of pyrimidine. It is a derivative of the naturally existing deoxycytidine, made by replacing the hydroxyl group in position 3’ with a hydrogen.It is phosphorylated in T cells and other HIV target cells into its active triphosphate form, ddCTP. This active metabolite works as a substrate for HIV reverse transcriptase, and also by incorporation into the viral DNA, hence terminating the chain elongation due to the missing hydroxyl group. Since zalcitabine is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor it possess activity only against retroviruses. [1]