Abstract

Development of new, effective and affordable drugs against HIV is urgently needed. In this study, we developed a worlds first web server called Anti-HIV-Predictor (http://bsb.kiz.ac.cn:70/hivpre) for predicting anti-HIV activity of given compounds. This server is rapid and accurate (accuracy >93% and AUC > 0.958). We applied the server to screen 1835 approved drugs for anti-HIV therapy. Totally 67 drugs were predicted to have anti-HIV activity, 25 of which are anti-HIV drugs. Then we experimentally evaluated 35 predicted new anti-HIV compounds by assays of syncytia formation, p24 quantification, cytotoxicity. Finally, we repurposed 7 approved drugs (cetrorelix, dalbavancin, daunorubicin, doxorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin and valrubicin) as new anti-HIV agents. The original indication of these drugs is involved in a variety of diseases such as female infertility and cancer. Anti-HIV-Predictor and the 7 repurposed anti-HIV agents provided here demonstrate the efficacy of this strategy for discovery of new anti-HIV agents.