Neamine derivatives which have an arginine (RN), a pyrene (PCN) and both pyrene and arginine (PRN) have been prepared and their binding toward the RNA fragments derived from HIV-1 activator region, TAR and RRE RNA were examined. Among them, PRN bound either TAR RNA or RRE RNA with equivalent binding affinities as Tat and Rev peptide, respectively. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.