Nursing Pharmacology: Antiviral Drugs
Antiviral Drugs
Anti-viral drugs with activity against HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)
Introduction: Human Retroviruses continued: Viral Replication
Viral DNA integrates with host cell chromosomes.
This integration step is catalyzed by the virally-encoded enzyme protein, integrase.
The HIV proviral DNA integrates into nuclear DNA preferentially within active gene introns and regional "hotspots."
The viral DNA integrated into host cell nuclear DNA may remain latent, i.e. transcriptionally inactive, or may exhibit gene expression to varying degrees, including that sufficient to support active viral production.
Cellular activation is an important part of the HIV replication cycle and plays an important role in development of HIV-related diseases.2
After binding and virion internalization into the host, target cell reverse-transcribed DNA intermediates are relatively unstable, initially.
Efficiency of integration of viral-derived DNA into the host cell genome depends on cellular activation, which typically begins shortly after infection.
Therapeutically, each point in the HIV replication cycle represents a possible or probable target for intervention.2
Reverse transcriptase, protease and integrase enzymes in addition to viral-target cell binding and fusion represent sites shown susceptible to anti-HIV viral agents.2
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