AN EXTRACT from green coffee beans may inspire the next generation of
anti-HIV drugs.
Edward Robinson, a molecular pathologist at the University of California at
Irvine, reported in 1996 that chicoric acid from coffee beans can stop the HIV
from replicating in cell cultures. But his suggestion that the compound blocked
the enzyme integrase, which inserts HIV into human chromosomes, was
controversial. 鈥淭here was a lot of scepticism,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ecause there were no
drugs that could block integrase.鈥�
This month Robinson and Peter King report in the Journal of Virology
(vol 72, p 8420) that a single amino acid change in integrase renders HIV
resistant to chicoric acid, which proves that integrase is its target. Although
chicoric acid is too weak to work in humans, Robinson鈥檚 lab is already
developing more powerful versions of the drug.
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