RNA interference and its therapeutic potential against HIV infection

Abstract

Background: HIV-1 infection is the major cause of AIDS. RNA interference (RNAi) has great potential to work as a powerful tool against HIV infection. Therefore, the possibilities of use of siRNA (small-interfering RNA) as a tool to deal with HIV infection are discussed in this article. Objective: Highly active anti retroviral therapy (HAART) has been successful in reducing the rate of progression to AIDS, but HIV utilizes various tricks to escape from the inhibitory effect of HAART. Therefore, new tools are required to delay progression of infection or block the replication cycle of HIV. Methods: This article has been written on the basis of informations available in the form of published literature in various journals. Conclusion: RNAi is a very promising strategy that in principle will provide many new targets against HIV infection. The mechanism of sequence complementarity utilized by siRNAs against their targets provides a new approach to fight against HIV infection. However, this technology still needs many fine refinements before its potential for HIV treatment strategies can be utilized. This review discusses the possibilities of using siRNA as a therapeutic tool for HIV treatment.

Keywords::

• HIV
• RNA interference
• siRNA
• small RNAs

Acknowledgements

The author is thankful to Dr Lalji Singh, Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad for providing all the facilities during preparation of this manuscript. The author is grateful to PB Hajeri for drawing the figure and for critical reading of the manuscript.