This is a collaborative research effort of investigators from five institutions formed to develop new agents for the treatment of AIDS. The Group membership includes The City of Hope National Medical Center, The Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, the California Institute of Technology, Microprobe Corporation, and Vestar Inc. There are two aspects in the design of our strategy for development of drugs for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Firstly, the antiviral agent should be virus specific, and secondly, the potential therapy for AIDS should be applied with curative intent. To this end, the Group focuses on HIV-gene specific synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (oligoNs) which are antisense constructs with crosslinking capability to irreversibly bind and inhibit HIV sequences. In addition, cloned antisense DNA will be developed and to achieve stable incorporation into HIV susceptible cells, this cloned antisense will be produced, packaged in novel methods, and delivered to targeted cells. The group membership links basic science efforts with industrial expertise in an attempt to efficiently bring discovered agents to clinical evaluation.
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