THE discovery of two chemicals that make it tough for HIV to worm its way
into human chromosomes may give scientists a new mode of attack against the
virus.
Existing anti-HIV drugs target one of two viral enzymes: reverse
transcriptase, which transforms HIV’s RNA into DNA once it enters a cell; or HIV
protease, which gives the new virus particles their protein coat.
Before it can replicate itself, however, HIV has to hijack the host cell’s
biochemical machinery by integrating itself into human DNA. The enzyme
responsible for this is called HIV integrase. And now a team of researchers at…
