[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 30 (Thursday, February 13, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Page 6790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-3529]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The invention listed below is owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and is available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance 
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results 
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent 
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage 
for U.S. companies and may also be available for licensing.

ADDRESSES: Licensing information and a copy of the U.S. patent 
application referenced below may be obtained by contacting Cindy K. 
Fuchs, J.D., at the Office of Technology Transfer, National Institutes 
of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville, Maryland 
20852-3804 (telephone 301/496-7735 ext 232; fax 301/402-0220). A signed 
Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive a copy of 
the patent application.

The CCHC Zinc Fingers of the Retroviral Nucleocapsid Protein Comprises 
a New Target Useful in Identification and Evaluation of Anti-HIV 
Therapeutics

L Henderson, L Arthur, W Rice, and A Rein (NCI)
Serial No. 08/379,420 filed January 27, 1995

    HIV-1 contains domains known as ``CCHC zinc fingers'' in the 
retroviral nucleocapsid (NC) protein. Nucleocapsid CCHC zinc fingers 
are highly conserved throughout nearly all retroviruses, and are 
sequences of 14 amino acids with four invariant residues, 
Cys(X)<INF>2Cys(X)<INF>4His(X)<INF>4Cys, that chelate zinc and perform 
essential functions in viral infectivity. HIV-1 NC has two CCHC zinc 
fingers, both of which are necessary for infectivity. Many compounds 
that disrupt the CCHC zinc fingers also inactivate HIV-1 by preventing 
the initiation of reverse transcription and by blocking production of 
infectious virus from previously infected cells by disruption of Gag 
processing. Compounds with this activity may be useful for developing 
new types of antiretroviral drugs. The invention concerns 
antiretroviral compounds that disrupt the CCHC zinc fingers and assays 
for identifying such compounds. The invariant nature of retroviral zinc 
fingers extends the usefulness of these compounds to other 
retroviruses. Thus these assays are also useful for screening compounds 
effective against adult T cell leukemia, tropical spastic paraparesis 
caused by HTLV-1 and HTLV-II, feline leukemia virus, feline 
immunodeficiency virus, equine infectious virus, and lentivirus 
infections in other animals. This invention is available for licensing 
on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis.

(Portfolios: Infectious Diseases--Therapeutics, anti-virals, AIDS; 
Infectious Diseases--Research Materials)

    Dated: February 4, 1997.
Barbara M. McGarey,
Deputy Director, Office of Technology Transfer.
[FR Doc. 97-3529 Filed 2-12-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-M