AKT1 and HIV-1 infection: Since HIV-1 protease inhibitors (PI), but not reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTI), have been reported to block Akt activation in several cell types such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and monocytes/macrophages34, 35, 36, 37, we assessed the potential role of PIs as immunomodulators in addition to their antiviral effect in HIV-1 infection.