Specific eradication of HIV-1 from infected cultured cells.
A correlation between increase in the integration of Human Immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) cDNA and cell death was previously established. Here we show that combination of peptides that stimulate integration together with the protease inhibitor Ro 31-8959 caused apoptotic cell death of HIV infected cells with total extermination of the virus. This combination did not have any effect on non-infected cells. Thus it appears that cell death is promoted only in the infected cells. It is our view that the results described in this work suggest a novel approach to specifically promote death of HIV-1 infected cells and thus may eventually be developed into a new and general anti-viral therapy.
Levin
Aviad
A
Department of Biological Chemistry, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. loyter@cc.huji.ac.il.
Hayouka
Zvi
Z
Friedler
Assaf
A
Loyter
Abraham
A