Identification of Sanguinarine as a Novel HIV Protease Inhibitor from High-Throughput Screening of 2,000 Drugs and Natural Products with a Cell-Based Assay

We identified a non-peptidomimetic HIV protease inhibitor sanguinarine through screening a small compound library with a high-throughput E. coli-based assay. In vitro, sanguinarine inhibits the HIV protease with an IC50 of around 13 μM. Based on docking results, binding modes of sanguinarine to the HIV protease are proposed.