Oxime derivatives of erythromycin: inhibitors of Rous sarcoma virus reverse transcriptase activity and focus formation.

9-O-methyloximd erythromycin A and its analogue inhibited reverse transcriptase and blocked focus formation of Rous sarcoma virus. These chemicals inhibited neither DNA-dependent DNA polymerase nor DNA-dependent RNA polymerase from bacterial sources. However, they inhibited reverse transcriptase with an apparently differnt mechanism than that by rifamycin ABDP.