Blocking HIV-1 Vif Restores a Natural Mechanism of Intracellular Antiviral Defense

AIDS has become the greatest pandemic in the human history counting approximately 40 millions people worldwide. To purge HIV-1 infection, new therapeutic approaches need to be searched in alternative and / or in addition to the current pharmacological ones. Recently, several independent laboratories have unveiled a nonimmune intracellular anti-HIV-1 defense strategy based on the cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G, which restricts HIV- 1 production by directly mutating the proviral DNA in infected cells. To counteract this defense pathway, HIV-1 has developed an evasion strategy by acquiring the accessory protein Vif, which blocks the action of APOBEC3G by inducing its proteasome-mediated degradation.