Abstract
A correlation between increase in the integration of Human Immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) cDNA and cell death was previously established. Here we show that combination of peptides that stimulate integration together with the protease inhibitor Ro 31-8959 caused apoptotic cell death of HIV infected cells with total extermination of the virus. This combination did not have any effect on non-infected cells. Thus it appears that cell death is promoted only in the infected cells. It is our view that the results described in this work suggest a novel approach to specifically promote death of HIV-1 infected cells and thus may eventually be developed into a new and general anti-viral therapy.
Highlights
A correlation between increase in the integration of Human Immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) cDNA and cell death was previously established
No cure or vaccine are currently available for the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection as well as for the resulting Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) [1]
An highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which blocks the activities of the viral reverse transcriptase and protease and inhibits the virus-host fusion process, is presently used [2,3]
Summary
A correlation between increase in the integration of Human Immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) cDNA and cell death was previously established. * Correspondence: loyter@cc.huji.ac.il 1Department of Biological Chemistry, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Full list of author information is available at the end of the article numerous copies of unintegrated viral cDNA [22,24].
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