Genes and screens: the search for novel chemotherapeutic targets

摘要

HIV, like all viruses, must hijack critical cellular machinery in a bid to survive, replicate and spread. The compact genome of HIV is in stark contrast to the sophistication of the retroviral life cycle, suggesting the essential involvement of a myriad of host factors at distinct stages of the viral life cycle, from entry to integration to budding. Identification of these host components is critical to assemble a full spectrum of the potential points of therapeutic intervention and, in the last two decades, meticulous research by a long list of talented individuals has yielded the identity of dozens of these important factors. Brass et al. have recently added an incredible 237 unique cellular proteins, which they term HIV-dependency factors, to the list. Characterizing and understanding the role each of these cellular proteins plays in the interplay between host and virus promises to reveal previously unidentified cellular pathways important to viral pathogenesis. The obvious hope is that one or several of these newly identified players may ultimately be manipulated in a therapeutically meaningful context.