A historical sketch of the discovery and development of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

The long process of HIV-1 integrase inhibitor discovery and development can be attributed to both the complexity of HIV-1 integration and poor 'integration' of these researches into mainstream investigations on anti-retroviral therapy in the mid-1990s. Of note, some fungal extracts investigated during this period contain the beta-hydroxyketo group, later recognised to be a key structural requirement for keto-enol acids (also referred to as diketo acids) and other integrase inhibitors. This review reconstructs (in the general context of the history of AIDS research) the principal steps that led to the integrase inhibitors currently in clinical trials, and discusses possible future directions.