Therapeutic potential of blocking HIV entry into cells: focus on membrane fusion inhibitors

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Despite a number of recent therapeutic advancements, there remains an urgent need to develop a new class of therapy for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This review summarises attempts at blocking HIV binding and entry into host cells, an approach that would provide theoretical advantages over the currently available drugs targeting enzymes (reverse transcriptase and protease), brought into play in the later stages of the viral life cycle. The multi-step process of HIV entry into cells, binding of the surface glycoprotein (gp120) to the CD4 receptor and one of the chemokine receptors, followed by the membrane fusion step mediated by the transmembrane glycoprotein (gp41), has recently been understood with greater clarity. The importance of the chemokine co-receptors, such as CCR5 and CXCR4, for HIV entry may help to explain the limitations of earlier approaches using recombinant soluble CD4 or polyanionic compounds to interfere non-specifically with HIV glycoprotein function. Conversely, previous invest...