HIV inhibitor from Thai bitter gourd

Thai bitter gourd protein (MRK29) was isolated from Momordica charantia ripe fruit and seed. The purification was performed by ammonium sulfate fractionation and gel filtration chromatography. MRK29 possessed one isoelectric point of (pl) greater than or equal to 9, and the time of flight mass spectrum (TOFMS) indicated its molecular weight at 28.6 kD. The twenty amino acid sequence from the N-terminus was in the following order: (1)Asp Val Asn Phe Arg Leu Ser Gly Ala (10)Asp Pro Arg X Tyr Gly Met Phe lie Glu (20)Asp. MRK29 inhibited the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase with 50% IR at the concentration of 18 mug/ml. MRK29 was concentrated in the 30-60% salt precipitated fraction, at which the concentration of 0.175 mug/ml exerted 82% reduction of viral core protein p24 expression in HIV-infected cells. MRK29 might have modulatory role on immune cells, because it increased 3-fold TNF activity.