Targets for inhibition of HIV replication: entry, enzyme action, release and maturation.

Inhibition of HIV replication initially targeted viral enzymes, which are exclusively expressed by the virus and not present in the human cell. The development of reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors started with the discovery of antiretroviral activity of the nucleoside analog zidovudine in March 1987. Currently, six major classes of antiretroviral drugs are used for the treatment of HIV-infected patients: the RT inhibitors, nucleoside inhibitors and nonnucleoside inhibitors, the protease inhibitors, the integrase inhibitor raltegravir, the fusion inhibitor enfuvirtide (T-20), and the chemokine receptor 5 antagonist maraviroc.

Short communication: selection of thymidine analogue resistance mutational patterns in children infected from a common HIV type 1 subtype G source.

In HIV-1, thymidine analogue mutations (TAMs) cluster in one of two groups (215Y, 41L, 210W, or 215F, 219E/Q), representing two independent mutational patterns (T215Y and T215F cluster, respectively). The mechanisms by which these pathways are selected are not fully understood. To investigate possible factors driving the selection of the TAMs, we analyzed the TAM patterns with regard to the respective treatment, viral load, and HLA in 18 children all infected from a common source of HIV-1 clade G virus and initially treated with zidovudine.