A new research team announced today that they may have discovered a new way to fight HIV. They worked to isolate 270 human proteins that are essential for the AIDS virus to attack the immune system. This new discovery will give scientists a lot more ammunition to discover methods of effectively stopping HIV in its tracks.
This discovery is very important for several reasons. First, at least 200 of these proteins were not believed to be part of the process, but now researchers have identified them and found out how they work to give AIDS inroads into a patient’s body. These new proteins were discovered by using a “genome wide scan,” a new technology that was recently developed.
Previously, it was thought that AIDS could only be targeted with drugs that interrupt one of the main steps found in the virus life cycle. This new find opens up several doors that suggest there could be several other ways to treat the virus. “This is likely destined to be on the best papers on HIV for this coming decade,” commented Robert C. Gallo. He is the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus. He added, “I think it is terrific.” Gallo was not involved in this study, but appears to be cheered by its results.
This new discovery will help scientists unlock the way that HIV infects the human body and begins destroying cells. Over time, this could lead to several new treatments that will target the virus more effectively by finding new processes that can be stopped before they progress.
The process leading up to this discovery is quite incredible. In order to find out which proteins are needed by HIV, all 21,000 human genes that are responsible for encoding proteins, were scanned with a genome wide scanner. This laborious procedure isolated each gene, blocking each one to see how it handled the virus attacking the cell. Overall, there were 273 proteins that were needed by the HIV virus to successfully infect a cell.
36 of these proteins had been identified previously, but the discovery of the additional 237 is monumental. In addition to discovering the proteins, the research team also learned more about how HIV attacks the immune system. The cells that make up the immune system of the body are the ones that contain the proteins necessary for the survival of the virus. This means that they are naturally drawn to these cells in order to survive.
The full research report was published by Stephen J. Ellege of Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on Friday. The text of the report is now available online thanks to Science, a medical journal.
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