By using a technique called RNA interference to screen thousands
of genes, U.S. researchers have identified almost 300 human
proteins that help HIV propagate, according to a new study.
This identification has created hope for new treatments to
combat the HIV virus that causes AIDS, said the study conducted by
a team of Harvard University researchers.
The team identified 273 human proteins which could provide a way
to help people with HIV when the virus develops resistance to
current antiviral drugs, according to the study published in the
latest issue of Science Express. "Antiviral drugs are
currently doing a good job of keeping people alive, but these
therapeutics all suffer from the same problem, which is that you
can get resistance, so we decided to take a different approach
centered on the human proteins exploited by the virus. The virus
would not be able to mutate to overcome drugs that interact with
these proteins," senior author Stephen Elledge, a professor in
Harvard Medical School's department of genetics, said in a prepared
statement.
The expanded list of proteins gives future researchers "a
hypothesis generation machine," he said.
"Scientists can look at the list, predict why HIV needs a
particular protein, and then test their hypothesis," Elledge
explained.
He noted that immune cells -- which are targeted by HIV --
contain high concentrations of many of the 273 proteins.
"We're closing in on a systems level understanding of HIV, which
opens new therapeutic avenues. We might be able to tweak various
parts of the system to disrupt (HIV) propagation without making our
own cells sick," Elledge said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2008)