According to the results, styrylquinolines (SQLs) are synergistic with reverse transcriptase inhibitors, namely zidovudine (GlaxoSmithKline’s Retrovir) and nevirapine (Boehringer Ingelheim’s Viramune), and with another family of integrase inhibitors, strand transfer inhibitors known as diketoacids.
The in-vitro study suggests that SQLs could be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs in multi therapy regimens and illustrates the potential for developing an alternative class of integrase inhibitors to overcome developing HIV resistance.
These results are significant because they suggest a way of combating the emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) that has arisen through the use of HIV-1 inhibitors, such as reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors, thus supporting the introduction of integrase inhibitors as a potential weapon in the fight against drug resistant viral strains.