Diarylpyrimidines (DAPY) and diaryltriazines (DATA) are two closely related classes of molecules resembling the

pyrimidine Pyrimidine (; ) is an aromatic, heterocyclic, organic compound similar to pyridine (). One of the three diazines (six-membered heterocyclics with two nitrogen atoms in the ring), it has nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 in the ring. The oth ...

nucleotide Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

s found in

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

. They show great potency in inhibiting the activity of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

reverse transcriptase A reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme used to convert RNA genome to DNA, a process termed reverse transcription. Reverse transcriptases are used by viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B to replicate their genomes, by retrotransposon mobi ...

. Several compounds in this class are

non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor Reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) are a class of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV infection or AIDS, and in some cases hepatitis B. RTIs inhibit activity of reverse transcriptase, a viral DNA polymerase that is required for replicatio ...

s used clinically in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, notably

etravirine Etravirine (ETR,), sold under the brand name Intelence is an antiretroviral medication used for the treatment of HIV. Etravirine is a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). Unlike age ...

and

rilpivirine Rilpivirine, sold under the brand name Edurant among others, is a medication, developed by Tibotec, used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is a second-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) with higher potency (pharma ...

.Steve Mitchell
HIV Market To Top 10 Billion Dollars
United Press International. April 11, 2007.

References

Antiretroviral drugs Pyrimidines {{heterocyclic-stub