Tat-regulated expression of RNA interference: triggers for the treatment of HIV infection.

HIV infection is a lifelong problem requiring continual medication for suppressing viral replication. Current strategies of antiretroviral drug combinations have proven effective in prolonging the time from infection to the symptoms of AIDS. Nevertheless, chemotherapy is not without its problems, which include toxicities and eventual emergence of virus mutants that are resistant to current antiretrovirals. Gene therapy refers to the introduction of effector oligonucleotides to transiently or stably alter gene expression or the delivery and expression of an exogenous gene within a specific target cell. A number of studies have demonstrated effective silencing/inhibition of HIV-1 replication by using RNA-based effector oligonucleotides for RNA interference. In this study, we have taken advantage of lentiviral vector-mediated delivery of anti-HIV short hairpin RNA for the treatment of HIV infection in hematopoietic cells.