Transition Metal Complexes with HIV/AIDS Inhibitory Properties

The management of HIV in the human body has been a major research area in the quest to either find the cure or the preventative scientific measure. The quest to manage the virus has been successful using some organic molecules which target one or more of the stages of the replication cycle of HIV rendering it inhibited to continue infecting other host cells. However, the approach is now moving to use of transition metal complexes to manage the HIV infection in the host cells and this review highlights the relevant contributions of such as HIV/AIDS inhibitors. There have been increasing number of reports on the trends for transition metal complexes with anticancer and antimicrobial activity hence this probed the need of such a review. Complexes of vanadium, manganese, iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, ruthenium, platinum and gold have been reported to be active against HIV-1 virus. The complexes discussed in this review showed anti-viral activity compared to the vehicle control.