Zintevir

Phase I trials showed that the drug is well tolerated. Zintevir belongs to a class of novel oligo- nucleotides. It is a short (17-mer) G-T-containing polynucleotide.

Zintevir was first tested in 1998 and was thought to be an integrase inhibitor. However, while it may inhibit purified integrase in tests in the laboratory, this does not appear how it works against HIV in vivo. The drug appears to prevent the binding of gp120 to CD4 cells. This finding that Zintevir probably does not act as an integrase inhibitor in cells does not affect its possible value as an HIV inhibitor