Antisense oligonucleotides as drugs for HIV treatment

Nowadays, several million people suffer from AIDS and more than 100 million people are forecasted to be infected with HIV. Among new drugs used to stop HIV virus infection, antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) are under investigation and several biotechnology companies are currently developing antisense drugs. Antisense ODNs are short stretches of DNA complementary to a target mRNA. The ODNs selectively hybridise to their complementary RNA by Watson-Crick base pairing rules. In theory, the use of antisense ODNs provides a method to specifically inhibit the intracellular expression of any disorder. This review describes some of the clinical patents in the field of HIV treatments by antisense ODNs. These prior attempts at targeting HIV have largely focused on the nature of the chemical modification used in the ODN moiety. Although each of the described inventions have reported some degree of success in inhibiting some function of the virus, a general therapeutic scheme to target HIV has not yet been found.