Combinatorial chemistry as a tool for targeting different stages of the replicative HIV-1 cycle

In the present era, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the most fatal disorder for which no completely successful chemotherapy has been developed so far. The pandemic spread of this disease has prompted an unprecedented scientific and clinical effort to understand and combat it. A number of targets has been identified to stop the replication of the virus at different stages of its life cycle: Reverse Transcriptase (RT), protease (PR) and CCR5 are the most promising targets. Although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been effective in reducing the mortality and morbidity in recent years, adverse side effects of the chemotherapy, patient non-compliance and the development of viral resistance remain major problems. With the aim to find better drug candidates with minor adverse side effects in recent years, several groups have investigated combinatorial approaches for the generation of libraries of HIV PR inhibitors while only few contributions to the preparation of libraries of HIV Reverse Transcriptase (RT) and CCR5 inhibitors are available. This review summarizes the recent developments of combinatorial chemistry in this area.