Inhibition of DNA helicases with DNA-competitive inhibitors.

Helicases form an attractive protein family for drug discovery because they are involved in various human diseases. In this report, we show that it is possible to inhibit both the ATPase and the helicase activities of a DNA helicase with dibenzothiepins that bind at its nucleic acid binding site. These results suggest a drug discovery strategy to inhibit DNA helicases.