Identifying Novel Anti-HIV Drugs

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the causative agent of the Acquired ImmuneDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). More than 1.5 million people are infected with this virus in North Americaand Western Europe. As yet there are still no adequate anti-HlV treatments to arrest the furtherdevelopment of this epidemic. We have designed two anti-HlV assays that target the production ofspecific viral proteins. Phase l funding will be used as a feasibility study to determine which of these twoassays is most suitable for development as a high throughput screen to identify potential anti-HlV drugs.In addition, a mammalian cell based secondary screen will be generated to confirm that any compoundsidentified by the high throughput screen function in vivo.