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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 4.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Med Chem. 2020;27(25):4181–4193. doi: 10.2174/0929867326666191001125101

Fig. (1).

Fig. (1).

A: HIV evolution and use of an RNA aptamer as a decoy. A: HIV evolved an RNA aptamer termed Trans-Activator Response (TAR) element to control its gene expression and replication. The viral trans-activator of transcription (tat) protein binds to TAR at the 5’ end of all viral RNAs and together with cellular factors activates viral gene expression and replication. B: Inhibition of HIV replication by the first described therapeutic aptamer. TAR decoy RNA aptamers bind the tat protein, preventing them from binding the viral TAR sequence, thereby inhibiting tat-mediated activation of HIV gene expression and replication [4, 14].