human immunodeficiency virus - 1 , hiv - 2 , and simian immunodeficiency virus contain , in addition to the canonical gag / pol / env genes , additional small open reading frames encoding gene products , including the 96 - amino acid 15 - kda virion associated hiv - 1 vpr gene product . the conservation of the vpr open reading frame in primate lentiviruses suggests that vpr is critical to viral replication . a biologically active recombinant hiv - 1 vpr protein was employed as a ligand to identify its cellular targets . a novel 41 - kda cytosolic protein was identified and termed the viral protein r interacting protein , or rip - 1 . rip - 1 displays a wide tissue distribution , including relevant targets of hiv infection . vpr protein induced nuclear translocation of rip - 1 , as did glucocorticoid receptor - ii - stimulating steroids . vpr and rip - 1 coimmunoprecipitated with the human gr as part of a receptor complex . the present invention discloses methods for the identification of compounds capable of inducing gr - ii / rip - 1 receptor complex cytosolic to nuclear translocation .