Objective Despite the success of highly active antiretrovirals to control HIV replication in infected patients, at least in countries that can afford these treatments, new drugs are still needed. Widely used drugs mainly target two viral enzymes, reverse transcrip tase and protease. However, about 20% of patients cannot tolerate antiviral cocktails in the short term, and long-term treatments are often associated with severe side effects. There is also increasing concern about the spreading of drug-resistant HIV va riants. Our aim is to identify lead compounds that could impact HIV through new mechanisms. Academia experts in virology and cellular biology have joined forces with antiviral-research specialists and pharmacologists, in order to perform anti-HIV high-t hroughput screening (HTS) assays. We have defined one unexploited viral target, for which there are no available inhibitors: The critical step of viral release from the cell. This novel target has been chosen because important recent discoveries have she d new light into the molecular mechanisms of virus budding, thereby rendering this critical step in HIV life cycle a feasible target for drug development. We are currently designing two assays allowing screening of libraries of chemicals. One is a cell-b ased assay and the other is a cell-free, protein/protein interaction assay. These assays do not require the use of infectious virus. Two libraries of 20,000 and 4,000 compounds, respectively, will be screened. We hope that these two complementary assays will allow the identification of hits or lead compounds, which could in a further step be improved by using a classical drug design approach. Fields of science medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discoverynatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirologymedical and health sciencesbasic medicinemedicinal chemistrymedical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusesHIVmedical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantivirals Keywords Drug Discovery HIV HighThroughput Screening Nef Programme(s) FP6-LIFESCIHEALTH - Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health: Thematic Priority 1 under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research programme 2002-2006. Topic(s) LSH-2003-2.3.0-1 - Highly innovative approaches for the development of new interventions for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis Call for proposal FP6-2003-LIFESCIHEALTH-3 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project Coordinator INSTITUT PASTEUR EU contribution No data Address 25-28 rue du Dr Roux PARIS France See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all LABORATORY OF VIROLOGY, ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITÀ, ROME Italy EU contribution No data Address Viale Regina Elena, 299 ROME See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY CLINIC OF HEIDELBERG Germany EU contribution No data Address Im Neuenheimer Feld 672 HEIDELBERG See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE Finland EU contribution No data Address Kalevantie 4 TAMPERE See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITÉ LOUIS PASTEUR France EU contribution No data Address Rue Blaise Pascal, n°4 STRASBOURG See on map Total cost No data