Anti-HIV-1 Activity of pepRF1, a Proteolysis-Resistant CXCR4 Antagonist Derived from Dengue Virus Capsid Protein

Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential and Biological Activity of Antiviral Peptides

Peptides are ideal candidates for the development of antiviral therapeutics due to their specificity, chemical diversity and potential for highly potent, safe, molecular interventions. By restricting conformational freedom and flexibility, cyclic peptides frequently increase peptide stability. Viral targets are often very challenging as their evasive strategies for infectivity can preclude standard therapies. In recent years, several peptides from natural sources mitigated an array of viral infections. In parallel, short peptides derived from key viral proteins, modified with chemical groups such as lipids and cell-penetrating sequences, led to highly effective antiviral inhibitor designs. These strategies have been further developed during the recent COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Several anti-SARS-CoV-2 peptides are gaining ground in pre-clinical development. Overall, peptides are strong contenders for lead compounds against many life-threatening viruses and may prove to be the key to future efforts revealing viral mechanisms of action and alleviating their effects.

Knowledge From London and Berlin: Finding Threads to a Functional HIV Cure

Despite the ability of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) to increase the life expectancy of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), viral reservoirs persist during life-long treatment. Notably, two cases of functional cure for HIV have been reported and are known as the "Berlin Patient" and the "London Patient". Both patients received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from donors with homozygous CCR5 delta32 mutation for an associated hematological malignancy. Therefore, there is growing interest in creating an HIV-resistant immune system through the use of gene-modified autologous hematopoietic stem cells with non-functional CCR5. Moreover, studies in CXCR4-targeted gene therapy for HIV have also shown great promise. Developing a cure for HIV infection remains a high priority. In this review, we discuss the increasing progress of coreceptor-based hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy, cART, milder conditioning regimens, and shock and kill strategies that have important implications for designing potential strategies aiming to achieve a functional cure for the majority of people with HIV.