Reagent and method for determining activity of herpes protease

Abstract

A class of compounds is described for use as fluorogenic substrates for herpesvirus proteases and for use in an assay to identify inhibitors of herpesvirus proteases. ##STR1## wherein W is selected from glycine, 4-aminobutyric acid, 5-aminopentanoic acid, 6-aminocaproic acid and 7-aminoheptanoic acid; wherein Y is selected from EDANS, Abz, DANSYL, nicotinic acid, 4-guanidino-benzoic acid, N-methyl-Abz, 4-chloro-Abz, 5-chloro-Abz, 6-chloro-Abz, 3,5-dibromo-Abz, 6-amino-nicotinic acid, 2-amino-nicotinic acid, 2-chloronicotinic acid, niflumic acid and fluorogenic derivatives thereof; and wherein Z is selected from tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine, p-nitrophenylalanine, m-nitrophenylalanine, DABSYL, DABCYL and halogenated derivatives thereof.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.