What is the mechanism of action of the anti-HIV drug AZT?
A)it causes double-strand DNA breaks
B)it inhibits DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase
C)it prevents transcription in infected cells
D)it blocks the active site of DNA ligase
E)it prevents viral entry into cells

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

AZT (Azidothymidine/Zidovudine) is a nucleoside analog that inhibits the activity of reverse transcriptase, which is an enzyme crucial for HIV replication by converting viral RNA into DNA. AZT is incorporated into the growing virus DNA chain and terminates the chain elongation, preventing further replication of the virus. Therefore, its mechanism of action is to inhibit DNA synthesis by reverse transcriptase.

What Is the Mechanism of Action of the Anti-HIV Drug