RNA Interference Identifies Potential New Targets for HIV Therapy

The human immunodeficiency virus is a simple beast: It has nine genes, which encode 15 proteins. These proteins have been the primary targets of antiviral drugs directed against HIV. But the virus mutates so rapidly that HIV soon develops resistance to drugs that target viral proteins. To cause disease, HIV must infect human cells. To do so, HIV takes advantage of various human proteins. A team at Harvard Medical School reasoned that these human proteins on which HIV depends — rather than HIV’s proteins — might be a better target for antiviral therapies.

To identify the human proteins that are required by HIV, the team used RNA interference (RNAi), which can stop a single specific gene from making its protein (Journal Watch Dec 31 2003). The…