Recent advances in the discovery and development of plant-derived natural products and their analogs as anti-HIV agents

Chemotherapy for AIDS has progressed steadily in the past decade with the a dvent of five HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, an d combination of the two. However, new, effective, and less toxic chemother apeutic agents are still needed. Plants, particularly anti-infective or imm unomodulating Chinese herbal medicines, can serve as sources of new active leads to be further developed as anti-AIDS drug candidates. This report des cribes current new lead discovery and analog development in the authors' la boratory. Several compound classes (for example, DCK and betulinic acid der ivatives) are extremely active against HIV replication, with activity rival ing or surpassing that of AZT. Continued progress is anticipated in the dis covery of new leads and in the development of these agents as potential ant i-AIDS drug candidates.