Current drugs for HIV-1: from challenges to potential in HIV/AIDS

Yuan Peng; Yanjun Zong; Dongfeng Wang; Junbing Chen; Zhe-Sheng Chen; Fujun Peng; Zhijun Liu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1294966

Current drugs for HIV-1: from challenges to potential in HIV/AIDS

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Oct 26:14:1294966. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1294966. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yuan Peng^#¹, Yanjun Zong^#², Dongfeng Wang³, Junbing Chen^{4

5}, Zhe-Sheng Chen⁶, Fujun Peng³, Zhijun Liu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Clinical Medicine, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, China.
² Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, China.
³ School of Basic Medical Sciences, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, China.
⁴ Department of Liver Surgery and Transplantation, Zhongshan Hospital, Liver Cancer Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, St. John's University, New York, NY, United States.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists in latently infected CD4⁺T cells and integrates with the host genome until cell death. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is associated with HIV-1. Possibly, treating HIV/AIDS is an essential but challenging clinical goal. This review provides a detailed account of the types and mechanisms of monotherapy and combination therapy against HIV-1 and describes nanoparticle and hydrogel delivery systems. In particular, the recently developed capsid inhibitor (Lenacapavir) and the Ainuovirine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/lamivudine combination (ACC008) are described. It is interestingly to note that the lack of the multipass transmembrane proteins serine incorporator 3 (SERINC3) and the multipass transmembrane proteins serine incorporator 5 (SERINC5) may be one of the reasons for the enhanced infectivity of HIV-1. This discovery of SERINC3 and SERINC5 provides new ideas for HIV-1 medication development. Therefore, we believe that in treating AIDS, antiviral medications should be rationally selected for pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis to avoid the emergence of drug resistance. Attention should be paid to the research and development of new drugs to predict HIV mutations as accurately as possible and to develop immune antibodies to provide multiple guarantees for the cure of AIDS.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS treatment; SERINC3; SERINC5; anti-HIV-1 drugs; combination therapy; monotherapy; predict HIV mutations.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by grants from the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (ZR2019MC059), the Youth Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021QH367), and the Public Sponsored Domestic Visiting Program of Weifang Medical University (No. 20237-11).