Currently, FightAIDS@Home is targeting HIV protease, using many different approaches.

I understand they would also like to target integrase in the future.

Check the project status: http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/status and newsletters: http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/ for more.

Hello Luyseyal;

No it wasn't a Transcription Inhibitor but good eye on target! Also; I think there is something about a Polytranscriptase Inhibitor; a Hyper Polymer Inhibitor that polymerizes the poly-nucleotides of the RNA/DNA of the virus like an epoxy heating up destroying code.

Anyway; there are more radical approaches out there but they have been pursued very little. I think they have a big problem with how to get drugs inside the virus or cell is the biggest thing as I was told before they have to be 'slippery.' Of course I'm sure cost is always a factor.

Many good/great ideas but very few with any practical purpose I think.

Hi everybody,

At FightAIDS@Home, we are working on discovering and developing new "HIV protease inhibitors." In addition to searching for new inhibitors of the well-validated "active site" target, we are also trying to discover a completely new class of protease inhibitors: allosteric inhibitors that target the "exo site." We discovered this exo site as a potential drug target. This exo site has not yet been validated as a real drug target, but we are getting closer and closer to reaching that goal.

In the future, we will also start performing research against HIV integrase on FightAIDS@Home. We've been working on the creation of more accurate models of integrase for a couple years, as a side project in the Olson lab at TSRI. We will incorporate these new models into up-coming FightAIDS@Home experiments.


The main classes of FDA-approved anti-AIDS drugs are as follows:
1) HIV protease inhibitors (that target the active site in the hollow center of the enzyme)

2) HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitors, of which there are two main classes
a) RT inhibitors that target the active site (i.e., the nucleoside analog RTI's and the nucleotide analog RTI's)
b) allosteric RT inhibitors that target a different site (i.e., the Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NNRTI's)

3) HIV entry inhibitors, which are also called "fusion inhibitors"

4) HIV integrase inhibitors, which are the newest class of anti-AIDS drugs. Only one HIV integrase inhibitor has been approved by the FDA thus far (in 2007).


Other types of potential HIV drug targets are being pursued by many different labs, but as far as I know, these other projects have not yet progressed to the point of receiving FDA approval for an actual drug.

Thank you all very much for your interest and for your help,
Dr. Alex Perryman