AIDS Drugs AZT and Protease Inhibitors

Another, perhaps, potentially very effective way to combat the resistance to antibiotics is to eliminate the resistance factor-carrying plasmids altogether. Chemists at University of Illinois (Hergenrother P.J. and his graduate students) discovered that a small molecule named apramycin, a kind of compound belonging to aminoglycoside, competes with plasmids for necessary RNAs for reproduction and wins the competition. Plasmids thus prevented from reproduction are eliminated from the cell. Hence, the bacterial cell wiU lose the source of resistance factor. 

Chemotherapy for AIDS is perhaps the most hotly pursued in pharmaceutical industry today. For quite a while, AZT, or its analogues, was the only usable drug. 

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