ABSTRACT
The engineering of commensal bacteria for delivery of HIV-1 inhibitors represents a potentiation of the anti-HIV-1 barrier normally established by these bacteria on human mucosal tissues. In addition, genetically modified commensal bacteria constitute a special category within anti-HIV-1 microbicides, the so-called “live microbicides.” Several commensal bacteria species have been tested as potential live microbicides, with different protein HIV-1 inhibitors being engineered for recombinant delivery. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) appear most suitable both for the generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status and for their proficiency in the expression of relatively complex heterologous proteins.Ultimately, the live microbicide approach brings many positive aspects and some worries on regulatory and prospective matters. Live microbicides are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and, as such, need to be handled and delivered under specific procedures. The most relevant being the avoidance of their survival upon release in the environment and the possibility to be eliminated from the human body when necessary. Systems have been envisaged to assure this control via further genetic modification of recombinant commensal bacteria.
