Moronic acid (3-oxoolean-18-en-28-oic acid) is a natural

triterpene Triterpenes are a class of chemical compounds composed of three terpene units with the molecular formula C30H48; they may also be thought of as consisting of six isoprene units. Animals, plants and fungi all produce triterpenes, including squale ...

. Moronic acid can be extracted from '' Rhus javanica'', a sumac plant traditionally believed to hold medicinal applications. The molecule has also been extracted from

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

('' Phoradendron reichenbachianum'').

Bevirimat Bevirimat (research code MPC-4326) is an anti-HIV drug derived from a betulinic acid-like compound, first isolated from ''Syzygium claviflorum,'' a Chinese herb. It is believed to inhibit HIV by a novel mechanism, so-called maturation inhibition ...

, a derivative of the related

triterpenoid Triterpenes are a class of chemical compounds composed of three terpene units with the molecular formula C30H48; they may also be thought of as consisting of six isoprene units. Animals, plants and fungi all produce triterpenes, including squale ...

betulinic acid Betulinic acid is a naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoid which has antiretroviral, antimalarial, and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as a more recently discovered potential as an anticancer agent, by inhibition of topoisomerase. I ...

, is under development as an anti-

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

drug; however, moronic acid has shown better antiviral profiles ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

'' than bevirimat. A particular moronic acid

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. F ...

showed potent anti-HIV activity with EC₅₀ values of 0.0085 μM against NL4-3, 0.021 μM against PI-R (a multiple protease inhibitor resistant strain), and 0.13 μM against FHR-2 (an HIV strain resistant to (bevirimat). This derivative has become a new lead for clinical trials and is also active against

herpes simplex virus 1 Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2), also known by their taxonomical names ''Human alphaherpesvirus 1'' and '' Human alphaherpesvirus 2'', are two members of the human ''Herpesviridae'' family, a set of viruses that produce viral inf ...

References

{{reflist

External links

CTD's Moronic acid page
from the

Comparative Toxicogenomics Database The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) is a public website and research tool launched in November 2004 that curates scientific data describing relationships between chemicals/drugs, genes/proteins, diseases, taxa, phenotypes, GO annotations ...

NLM/NIH Medical Subject Heading

Triterpenes Keto acids