Inhibition of HIV-1 TAR RNA-Tat peptide complexation using poly(acrylic acid).

HIV-1 is regulated at the transcriptional level by the interaction of Tat protein with the transactivation responsive region (TAR) RNA, a 59-base stem-loop structure located at the 5'-end of all nascent HIV-1 transcripts. Here, by targeting the Tat peptide, we found that negatively charged poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) had high affinity with Tat peptide and could inhibit the interaction of TAR with Tat. Therefore, PAA could block HIV replication by binding to Tat not to TAR RNA, providing a new thinking for the design of novel anti-HIV drugs.