Prospects for treatment of HIV1 viral infections

The latest revelation of the HIV1 natural history infection has made more aspects of the virus entry into cells more comprehensible. It is described as a multistage process with a key role of receptors and coreceptors. Succeeding binding of the structures launches a conformational casacade leading to virus-cell membrane fusion. Isolation of particles effectively blocking the process could enable creating new classes of antiretroviral drugs with a completely different way of affecting the virus. Certain prototype structures have already resulted to be successful - mostly according to in vitro research. However, further studies concerning in vivo analysis-which has partly been pursued-seems to be very promising, as well.

Keywords: HIV1, AIDS, fusion, Chemokines