HIV-AIDS and STDs

HIV Drug Discovery and Research

 The initial efficiency of combinatorial antiretroviral therapy in the treatment of HIV infection has been co-operated to some extent by rapid growth of multidrug-resistant HIV strains, poor bioavailability, and accumulative toxicities, and so there is a need for alternative strategies of antiretroviral drug discovery and additional therapeutic agents with novel action methods or targets. From this perception, we first review recent strategies of antiretroviral drug discovery and optimization, with the aid of selected examples from the recent literature. We highlight the expansion of phosphate ester-based prodrugs as means to improve the aqueous solubility of HIV inhibitors, and the introduction of the substrate envelope hypothesis as a new approach for overcoming HIV drug resistance. Lastly, we discuss future guidelines for research, including opportunities for exploitation of novel antiretroviral targets, and the approach of activation of latent HIV reservoirs as a means to exterminate the virus.