BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

OutSmarting HIV

June 4, 2001 7:00 AM UTC

The emergence of mutated HIV strains that are resistant to marketed non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (nNTRs) or protease inhibitors has stimulated researchers to look for alternate methods of fighting the virus. Virxsys Corp. is turning HIV against itself, using a disabled virus as a vector to treat HIV/AIDS patients. Importantly, it should be hard for viral mutations to render the SmartVector ineffective.

SmartVector is a gutted HIV, which has been stripped of all sequences that code for viral proteins; instead, it codes for antisense RNA against the HIV env gene product. When SmartVector-transfected cells are infected with wild type HIV (wtHIV), replication of the infectious virus drives expression of the gutted vector, including the antisense payload. The antisense RNA then binds the wtHIV env gene and inhibits expression and packaging of the infectious virus...