The potential role of HDAC inhibitors in de-silencing latent HIV virus

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) pandemic has represented one of the greatest burdens in modern medicine. HIV-1 is a slow replicating lentivirus that leads to the progressive failure of the immune system, allowing life-threatening diseases to thrive. HIV-1 preferentially infects CD4 + T cells, which give rise to two potential habitats for the virus to live, allowing for massive viral replication in activated cells and latency in resting cells. Until recently, new developments in HIV-1 research have identified factors involved in restricting retroviral infections. Latent HIV-1 proviruses are silenced via deacetylation and methylation of histones located at the viral DNA promoter regio..