Curcumin bioconjugates, viz. di-O-tryptophanylphenylalanine curcumin (2), di-O-decanoyl curcumin (3), di-O-pamitoyl curcumin (4), di-O-bis-(gamma,gamma)folyl curcumin (6), C(4)-ethyl-O-gamma-folyl curcumin (8) and 4-O-ethyl-O-gamma-folyl curcumin (10) have been synthesized and tested for their antibacterial and antiviral activities. The conjugates 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 have shown very promising antibacterial activity with MIC ranging between 0.09 and 0.67 microM against Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative bacilli. Further, the conjugates 2, 3, 6, 8 and 10 have been screened for their antiviral activities against HSV, VSV, FIPV, PIV-3, RSV and FHV and the molecules 2 and 3 have shown good results with EC(50) 0.011 microM and 0.029 microM against VSV and FIPV/FHV, respectively. However, the molecules did not show expected results against HIV-1 III(B) and ROD strains in MTT assay.

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The term multivalency (polyvalency) in the biological science is defined as the simultaneous binding of multiple ligands to one receptor (or multiple receptors to one ligand). The possibility of gaining potency and selectivity was significantly increased through the use of multivalent ligand as a homo- or hetero-dimer, thus multivalent ligands provided a more attractive strategy to design novel anti-HIV agents with therapeutic applications. Moreover, similar to phenomenon of multivalency, an alternative strategy is called the "mixed sites inhibitor", viz. a single molecule that possesses enough chemical space to maximize interactions with its complementary binding pocket, or to bind simultaneously in more than one regions in a target. Actually, the addition of a third heterocyclic nucleus to the parent compound resulted in "mixed sites" anti-HIV agents with broad spectrum of activities against the mutant HIV-1 strains. Based on current representative examples, the present article provided a brief review on the rationale for the design of different classes of multivalency anti-HIV agents and also discussed the advantages over their monomeric counterparts, providing a novel paradigm to facilitate the development of anti-HIV/AIDS therapeutic agents in treatment of HIV infected community.