A new tactic against HIV: T-cell tweaks
- added May 11, 2008
- 5 responses
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- yai
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"Scientists searching for anti-HIV drugs have been stymied by the fast-evolving, continuously adapting nature of the virus.
Some researchers are taking a different tack: rather than attacking the virus itself, they're targeting the cells that HIV infects.
In a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by National Human Genome Research Institute cell biologist Pamela Schwartzberg turned off a protein that helps mobilize immune system cells against infection.
Once T-cells were stripped of the protein, HIV couldn't get traction: the signaling pathways it normally exploits to invade a cell and copy itself were short-circuited.
Disabling T-cells may seem counterintuitive, as the disease is so terrible precisely because it destroys these cells, which are necessary to defend against unhealthy bacteria and viruses. But Schwartberg found that modified mice still fought off other viral infections, albeit with a delayed response.
It remains to be seen whether the tweak works as well in people as it did on a laboratory bench, where HIV struggled to spread through a culture of ITK-deficient cells. But in the long, losing battle against AIDS, every new lead is welcome.
ITK, though targeted by some drug companies for its role in asthma and allergies, "has not been really thought about in the context of HIV," said Schwartzberg. "The work provides a model for finding novel targets that can affect HIV replication."
Selective Targeting of ITK blocks multiple steps of HIV Replication [PNAS]
Image: Courtesy of the Institut Cochin, a T-cell (blue) and a dendritic cell (yellow). The latter help calibrate immune response".
Some researchers are taking a different tack: rather than attacking the virus itself, they're targeting the cells that HIV infects.
In a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by National Human Genome Research Institute cell biologist Pamela Schwartzberg turned off a protein that helps mobilize immune system cells against infection.
Once T-cells were stripped of the protein, HIV couldn't get traction: the signaling pathways it normally exploits to invade a cell and copy itself were short-circuited.
Disabling T-cells may seem counterintuitive, as the disease is so terrible precisely because it destroys these cells, which are necessary to defend against unhealthy bacteria and viruses. But Schwartberg found that modified mice still fought off other viral infections, albeit with a delayed response.
It remains to be seen whether the tweak works as well in people as it did on a laboratory bench, where HIV struggled to spread through a culture of ITK-deficient cells. But in the long, losing battle against AIDS, every new lead is welcome.
ITK, though targeted by some drug companies for its role in asthma and allergies, "has not been really thought about in the context of HIV," said Schwartzberg. "The work provides a model for finding novel targets that can affect HIV replication."
Selective Targeting of ITK blocks multiple steps of HIV Replication [PNAS]
Image: Courtesy of the Institut Cochin, a T-cell (blue) and a dendritic cell (yellow). The latter help calibrate immune response".
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Wow, T-virus in the making. I hope we don't help the virus evolve to the point where it will attach without protein. Or something even worse than the virus we are trying to stop.
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Good point, we dont want to see a real life "I am Legend" happening.
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- Ice_cream_Man
- 1 month ago
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Other than contracting this accidentally or by drug use or blood transfusion, one need not catch it at all.
That we still have it in the United States shows how we can't even control our behavior personally:(
Funny how such a little smidgeon of life can confound human beings isn't it and very sad that we have to die of it!:(-
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- PatrickEdwardMurray
- 1 month ago
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I agree, it does seem like a bad idea to change a cell like that. If the virus keeps changing and is able to adapt to a cell without the proteins, then at best, we'll only end up right where we are now.
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- ultravphunter
- 1 month ago
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Any and all ways to fight and cripple this diease should be welcomed. People with HIV/AIDS are codemned to death from the initial infection. They have drugs that prevent the disease from multipling and that is a lease on life for a certian period of time. Remember, it is not the HIV/AIDS disease that kills, it is the breakdown of vital organs and the inability to fight off infection that kills. The disease attacks the most vulnerable organ in your body and works it until other organs are affected and you have a total meltdown. So, anything that scientists come up with is a step in the right direction even if it means disabling a cell to so that the disease is destroyed and can not multiply.
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