SAM domain and HD domain-containing protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SAMHD1 gene. SAMHD1 is a cellular enzyme, responsible for blocking replication of HIV in dendritic cells, macrophages and monocytes. It is an enzyme that exhibits phosphohydrolase activity, converting deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) to inorganic phosphate (iPPP) and a 2'-deoxynucleoside (i.e. deoxynucleosides without a phosphate group). In doing so, SAMHD1 depletes the pool of dNTPs available to a reverse transcriptase for viral cDNA synthesis and thus prevents viral replication. SAMHD1 has also shown nuclease activity. Although a ribonuclease activity was described to be required for HIV-1 restriction, recent data confirmed that SAMHD1-mediated HIV-1 restriction in cells does not involve ribonuclease activity.