By Adam Lake • April 28, 2008 - 21:42
Scientists have discovered an HIV Aids treatment that may help sufferers avoid the problem of drug resistance.
Scientists have found that the virus can be significantly weakened by inactivating a key human protein called ITK.
Current treatments target the proteins in the HIV virus. This approach weakens the virus but in time it will mutate and resist the drugs that the sufferer is taking.
To combat this doctors will change the combination of the drugs but in time the virus will become resistant to those too. In addition to this, the changing of combinations can bring on serious side effects.
The new approach targets a protein produced by human cells rather than HIV, and is therefore impervious to the virus's mutations.
Researchers in the US found that inactivating the protein, known as ITK, suppressed HIV's ability to infect key human immune cells.
The HIV virus uses the bodies T cells to spread the virus, but by inactivating the ITK protein the virus looses can no longer use T cells.
ITK is a signalling molecule that activates T cells, part of the body's immune system.
Scientists studied the effects of ITK inactivation on cell cultures exposed to HIV and found that suppressing ITK reduced the ability of the virus to enter T cells and have its genetic material transcribed.
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