CURRENT STATUS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIV PROTEASE INHIBITORS AND THEIR CLINICAL POTENTIAL

HIV type 1 (HIV-1) codes a virus-specific aspartic protease that media tes crucial proteolytic processing of viral protein precursors at a la te stage(s) in the replication of the virus. Thus, HIV protease repres ents a virus-specific target for the therapy of HIV infection. Several protease inhibitors have already shown favourable antiviral activity in patients with HIV-1 infection. The critical questions now to be ans wered are how long the observed antiviral activity is sustained, and w hether significant clinical benefit is gained in individuals receiving protease inhibitors.