title: HIV therapeutic possibilities of gold compounds.
abstract: Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has resulted in decreased mortality and morbidity from the acquired immune deficiency syndrome caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Drug resistance and toxicity of HAART has led to the search for novel inhibitors of HIV infection. Gold-based compounds have shown promising activity against a wide range of clinical conditions and microorganism infections including HIV-1. A typical example is auranofin which resulted in an elevated CD4+ T-cell count in an HIV patient being treated for psoriatic arthritis. In addition, reports exist on gold-based inhibitors of reverse transcriptase (RT), protease (PR) and viral entry of host cells. These and other characteristics of gold-based HIV drugs are reviewed here.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, Hatfield Campus, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
authors.forename: Pascaline N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Fonteh
authors.forename: Frankline K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Keter
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D024882:Drug Resistance, Viral; D017612:Gold Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D017612:Gold Compounds