Biochemistry 4th Edition by Reginald Garrett, Charles Grisham

Exercise 3

Assessing the action of an aspartic protease inhibitor
Pepstatin (below) is an extremely potent inhibitor of the monomeric aspartic proteases, with K i values of less than 1 nM.
a. Based on the structure of pepstatin, suggest an explanation for the strongly inhibitory properties of this peptide.
b. Would pepstatin be expected to also inhibit the HIV-1 protease Explain your answer.