Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
RNAi refers to the sequence-specific degradation of RNA that follows the cellular introduction of homologous short interfering (si) RNA. RNAi has emerged as a powerful tool to probe the function of genes of known sequence in vitro and in vivo. Advances in vector design permit the effective expression of siRNA in human cells. Numerous recent investigations have described the ability of RNAi to decrease the replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in lymphocytic cells using siRNA targeting viral (e.g. tat, gag, rev) and host (e.g. CCR5, CD4) proteins. Can RNAi be used as a form of genetic therapy for HIV-1 infection? Recent data indicate that the dynamic replication kinetics of HIV-1 pose a considerable barrier to achieving durable virus suppression by RNAi with the rapid emergence of HIV-1 mutants resistant to siRNA. This review summarizes recent work on HIV-1 specific RNAi with a focus on potential strategies to overcome HIV-1 resistance to RNAi.