August 2003 Cover
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Researchers from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and Achillion Pharmaceuticals announced the discovery of a new target on the HIV molecule that could lead to a new class of antiviral drugs to fight HIV.
According to Achillion, researchers have long been looking at the HIV-1 capsid protein as a potential drug target.
The target was identified by scientists who discovered a number of compounds that bound to a specific area of the capsid protein thought to play a key role in the assembly process necessary for HIV to mature to its infectious form. Once computer models identified the
new capsid assembly target and compounds inhibiting the target, researchers tested the compounds in a number of biochemical assays, as well as in human cells infected with live HIV. This demonstrated that the anti-HIV activity of inhibitors was indeed due to the disruption of the
HIV-1 capsid protein.
Editor's Note: from AIDS Weekly
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