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Locking out viral replication

Few antimicrobial drugs function by directly targeting RNA. A small molecule that binds the hepatitis C viral genome by 'locking' in a particular RNA conformation to inhibit viral protein production suggests a new paradigm for drug design.

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Figure 1: Subdomain IIa of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) IRES (orange-yellow) forms an L-shaped structure that adopts multiple conformations due to intrinsic flexibility within the internal loop 'elbow'.

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Correspondence to Gabriele Varani.

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Begley, D., Varani, G. Locking out viral replication. Nat Chem Biol 5, 782–783 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.245

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