Discovery of Tat-mimicking Compounds to Fight HIV Latency

Marco Sgarbanti at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy proposes to develop a new class of small molecules designed to mimic Tat gene products found in HIV that stimulate and accelerate the transcription of HIV RNA. These Tat-mimicking compounds could activate the latent virus, creating an opportunity to expose it to effective antiretroviral therapies.