An aptamer-siRNA chimera suppresses HIV-1 viral loads and protects from helper CD4(+) T cell decline in humanized mice.

ABSTRACT: Therapeutic strategies designed to treat HIV infection with combinations of antiviral drugs have proven to be the best approach for slowing the progression to AIDS. Despite this progress, there are problems with viral drug resistance and toxicity, necessitating new approaches to combating HIV-1 infection. We have therefore developed a different combination approach for the treatment of HIV infection in which an RNA aptamer, with high binding affinity to the HIV-1 envelope (gp120) protein and virus neutralization properties, is attached to and delivers a small interfering RNA (siRNA) that triggers sequence-specific degradation of HIV RNAs. We have tested the antiviral activities of these chimeric RNAs in a humanized Rag2(-/-)γc(-/-) (RAG-hu) mouse model with multilineage human hematopoiesis

SUBMITTER: Neff CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3138523 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature