top of page
The Sound of Evolution
Stavudine
Mechanism of action:
Stavudine is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor) and a thymidine analog. After entering host cells, stavudine is sequentially phosphorylated by intracellular kinases into its active form, stavudine triphosphate. Stavudine triphosphate competes with dTTP and is mistakenly incorporated by HIV reverse transcriptase into the newly synthesized viral DNA. Because the stavudine molecule lacks a 3'-OH group, viral DNA synthesis stops immediately.
Reference(s):
1. Lea AP et al. (1996). Stavudine: a review of its pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties and clinical potential in HIV infection. Drugs.
2. De Clercq E et al. (2005). Emerging anti-HIV drugs. Expert Opin Emerg Drugs.
bottom of page