Charles Pellerin

TL;DR: Potent analogues in this series inhibit the polymerase at low micromolar concentrations and provide an attractive "drug-like" lead structure for further optimization and the development of potential HCV therapeutics.

TL;DR: The finding that an antiviral specifically targeting the NS3 protease activity inhibits HCV RNA replication further validates the NS2 enzyme as a prime target for drug discovery and supports the development of NS3rotease inhibitors as a novel therapeutic approach for HCV infection.

TL;DR: The improvement in potency in this ex vivo model of HCV RNA replication validates the mechanism by which this class of allosteric benzimidazole derivatives inhibits the polymerase and represents a significant step forward in the discovery of novel HCV therapeutics.

TL;DR: The characterization of specific benzimidazole-5-carboxamide-based inhibitors, identified in a screening campaign, revealed that this class of compounds was non-competitive with regard to NTP incorporation and had no effect on processive elongation, but inhibited an initiation phase of the HCV polymerase activity.

TL;DR: Hepatitis C virus subgenomic replicons are established in nonhepatic 293 cells and demonstrated their utility in expanding the study of cellular HCV RNA replication.