Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) decreases plasma viremia below the limits of detection in the majority of HIV-infected individuals, thus serving to slow disease progression. However, HAART targets only actively replicating virus and is unable to eliminate latently infected, resting CD4
+
T cells. Such infected cells are potentially capable of reinitiating virus replication upon cessation of HAART, thus leading to viral rebound. Agents that would eliminate these reservoirs, when used in combination with HAART, could thus provide a strategy for the eradication of HIV. Prostratin is a preclinical candidate that induces HIV expression from latently infected CD4
+
T cells, potentially leading to their elimination through a virus-induced cytopathic effect or host anti-HIV immunity. Here, we report the synthesis of a series of designed prostratin analogs and report in vitro and ex vivo studies of their activity relevant to induction of HIV expression. Members of this series are up to 100-fold more potent than the preclinical lead (prostratin) in binding to cell-free PKC, and in inducing HIV expression in a latently infected cell line and prostratin-like modulation of cell surface receptor expression in primary cells from HIV-negative donors. Significantly, selected members were also tested for HIV induction in resting CD4
+
T cells isolated from infected individuals receiving HAART and were found to exhibit potent induction activity. These more potent agents and by extension related tunable analogs now accessible through the studies described herein should facilitate research and preclinical advancement of this strategy for HIV/AIDS eradication.
高效抗逆转录病毒疗法(HAART)可将大多数HIV感染者的血浆病毒载量降至检测限度以下,从而减缓疾病进展。然而,HAART仅针对活跃复制的病毒,无法消除潜伏感染的静止CD4+ T细胞。这些感染细胞有可能在停止HAART后重新启动病毒复制,导致病毒反弹。与HAART结合使用的能够消除这些储存库的药物,可能提供一种根除HIV的策略。Prostratin是一种临床前候选药物,可以从潜伏感染的CD4+ T细胞中诱导HIV表达,可能通过病毒诱导的细胞病变效应或宿主抗HIV免疫机制来消除它们。在这里,我们报告了一系列设计的Prostratin类似物的合成,并报告了与诱导HIV表达相关的它们的体外和体内研究结果。该系列中的成员在与无细胞PKC的结合和在潜伏感染的细胞系中诱导HIV表达方面比临床前领先药物(Prostratin)高达100倍,并在来自HIV阴性供体的原代细胞中诱导HIV表达和类Prostratin的细胞表面受体表达调节方面表现出相似的效果。值得注意的是,选择的成员还在接受HAART的感染者中分离的静止CD4+ T细胞中进行了HIV诱导测试,并发现它们具有强效的诱导活性。这些更强效的药物以及通过本文所述的研究现在可以获得的相关可调控类似物,应有助于促进这种用于HIV/AIDS根除的策略的研究和临床前进展。