RNA interference approaches for treatment of HIV-1 infection

HIV/AIDS is a chronic and debilitating disease that cannot be cured with current antiretroviral drugs. While combinatorial antiretroviral therapy (cART) can potently suppress HIV-1 replication and delay the onset of AIDS, viral mutagenesis often leads to viral escape from multiple drugs. In addition to the pharmacological agents that comprise cART drug cocktails, new biological therapeutics are reaching the clinic. These include gene-based therapies that utilize RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the expression of viral or host mRNA targets that are required for HIV-1 infection and/or replication. RNAi allows sequence-specific design to compensate for viral mutants and natural variants, thereby drastically expanding the number of therapeutic targets beyond the capabilities of cART. Recent advances in clinical and preclinical studies have demonstrated the promise of RNAi therapeutics, reinforcing the concept that RNAi-based agents might offer a safe, effective, and more durable approach for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, there are challenges that must be overcome in order for RNAi therapeutics to reach their clinical potential. These include the refinement of strategies for delivery and to reduce the risk of mutational escape. In this review, we provide an overview of RNAi-based therapies for HIV-1, examine a variety of combinatorial RNAi strategies, and discuss approaches for ex vivo delivery and in vivo delivery

Excision of HIV-1 Proviral DNA by Recombinant Cell Permeable Tre-Recombinase

Over the previous years, comprehensive studies on antiretroviral drugs resulted in the successful introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) into clinical practice for treatment of HIV/AIDS. However, there is still need for new therapeutic approaches, since HAART cannot eradicate HIV-1 from the infected organism and, unfortunately, can be associated with long-term toxicity and the development of drug resistance. In contrast, novel gene therapy strategies may have the potential to reverse the infection by eradicating HIV-1. For example, expression of long terminal repeat (LTR)-specific recombinase (Tre-recombinase) has been shown to result in chromosomal excision of proviral DNA and, in consequence, in the eradication of HIV-1 from infected cell cultures. However, the delivery of Tre-recombinase currently depends on the genetic manipulation of target cells, a process that is complicating such therapeutic approaches and, thus, might be undesirable in a clinical setting. In this report we demonstrate that E.coli expressed Tre-recombinases, tagged either with the protein transduction domain (PTD) from the HIV-1 Tat trans-activator or the translocation motif (TLM) of the Hepatitis B virus PreS2 protein, were able to translocate efficiently into cells and showed significant recombination activity on HIV-1 LTR sequences. Tre activity was observed using episomal and stable integrated reporter constructs in transfected HeLa cells. Furthermore, the TLM-tagged enzyme was able to excise the full-length proviral DNA from chromosomal integration sites of HIV-1-infected HeLa and CEM-SS cells. The presented data confirm Tre-recombinase activity on integrated HIV-1 and provide the basis for the non-genetic transient application of engineered recombinases, which may be a valuable component of future HIV eradication strategies

Toll-Like Receptor 8 Ligands Activate a Vitamin D Mediated Autophagic Response that Inhibits Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are important in recognizing microbial pathogens and triggering host innate immune responses, including autophagy, and in the mediation of immune activation during human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV) infection. We report here that TLR8 activation in human macrophages induces the expression of the human cathelicidin microbial peptide (CAMP), the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and cytochrome P450, family 27, subfamily B, polypeptide 1 (CYP27B1), which 1α-hydroxylates the inactive form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, into its biologically active metabolite. Moreover, we demonstrate using RNA interference, chemical inhibitors and vitamin D deficient media that TLR8 agonists inhibit HIV through a vitamin D and CAMP dependent autophagic mechanism. These data support an important role for vitamin D in the control of HIV infection, and provide a biological explanation for the benefits of vitamin D. These findings also provide new insights into potential novel targets to prevent and treat HIV infection