Ribavirin is not a functional mimic of the 7-methyl guanosine mRNA cap (original) (raw)

  1. YIFEI YAN1,
  2. YURI SVITKIN1,
  3. JOSEPH M. LEE1,
  4. MARTIN BISAILLON3, and
  5. JERRY PELLETIER1,2
  6. 1Department of Biochemistry and 2McGill Cancer Center, McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, McGill University, Montreal, Québec H3G 1Y6, Canada
  7. 3Département de Biochimie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec J1H 5N4, Canada

Abstract

Ribavirin is a guanosine ribonucleoside analog that displays broad-spectrum anti-viral activity and is currently used for the treatment of some viral infections. Ribavirin has recently been proposed to also be a mimic of the 7-methyl guanosine cap found at the 5′ end of mRNAs. To obtain supporting functional data for this hypothesis, we assessed the ability of ribavirin triphosphate to interfere with the interaction between eIF4E and 7-methyl guanosine capped mRNA. In chemical cross-linking assays, cap-affinity chromatography, and cap-dependent translation assays, ribavirin was unable to function as a cap analog.

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