Structure of Vaccinia Virus Thymidine Kinase in Complex with Dttp: Insights for Drug Design.
El Omari, K., Solaroli, N., Karlsson, A., Balzarini, J., Stammers, D.K.(2006) BMC Struct Biol 6: 22
- PubMed: 17062140 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6807-6-22
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
2J87 - PubMed Abstract: 
Development of countermeasures to bioterrorist threats such as those posed by the smallpox virus (variola), include vaccination and drug development. Selective activation of nucleoside analogues by virus-encoded thymidine (dThd) kinases (TK) represents one of the most successful strategies for antiviral chemotherapy as demonstrated for anti-herpes drugs. Vaccinia virus TK is a close orthologue of variola TK but also shares a relatively high sequence identity to human type 2 TK (hTK), thus achieving drug selectivity relative to the host enzyme is challenging.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Division of Structural Biology, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK. kamel@strubi.ox.ac.uk