The use of ribozyme gene therapy for the inhibition of HIV replication and its pathogenic sequelae.

AbstractHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus, aseparate genus of the Retroviridae which are RNAviruses that integrate as DNA copies into the genomesof host cells and replicate intracellularly throughvarious RNA intermediates. Several of these RNAmolecules can be targeted by ribozymes and a numberof investigators, including our group, havedemonstrated the ability of ribozymes to suppress HIVreplication in cultured cells. It is argued that the useof this ribozyme gene therapy approach for thetreatment of HIV infection may act as an adjunct tochemotherapeutic drugs and may affect not just viralsuppression, but also immune restoration. Thisapproach can be tested in Clinical Trials, several ofwhich are currently under way.Introduction Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and itsassociated disorders are caused by the human lentivirus,human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (1-7). HIV type-1(HIV-1) is the subtype of HIV which generally induces AIDS,HIV-2 being a rarer subtype found mainly in Africa (5).The primary target cells for HIV infection in vivo arethe CD4