A new potential approach to block HIV-1 replication via protein-protein interaction and strand-transfer inhibition

Therapeutic treatment of AIDS is recently characterized by a crescent effort towards the identification of multiple ligands able to target different steps of HIV-1 life cycle. Taking into consideration our previously obtained SAR information and combining some important chemical structural features we report herein the synthesis of novel benzyl-indole derivatives as anti-HIV agents. Through this work we identified new dual target small molecules able to inhibit both IN-LEDGF/p75 interaction and the IN strand-transfer step considered as two crucial phases of viral life cycle.