Inhibition of infection of incoming HIV‐1 virus by RNA‐cleaving DNA enzyme

Abstract
Nine different DNA enzymes (DzV3‐n, n=1–9) targeting the V3 loop region of HIV‐1 HXB2 were synthesized. One of those, DzV3‐9, efficiently cleaved the target in the conserved sequence in the RNA transcript in vitro. DzV3‐9 was stable in the cells and inhibited replication of both NL432 and SF162 strains in U87 cells expressing CD4 and co‐receptors. The inhibitory effect of DNAzyme on incoming HIV‐1 was also demonstrated with pseudotype virions generated by NL432‐based luciferase reporter genes. Thus, an efficient, stable DNAzyme against a functionally important region of HIV‐1 was identified, and it may be useful for prevention of HIV‐1 infection.