Killing Latent HIV Cells

Scientists create molecule to activate, kill latent HIV-infected cells

UCLA researchers have found that the way to cure HIV-positive patients may be to activate the virus. Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and Stanford University developed a synthetic molecule that reactivated dormant HIV in cells. The molecule killed one-quarter of infected cells within a day.

 From article, (UCLA researchers have found that the way to cure HIV-positive patients may be to activate the virus.

Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and Stanford University developed a synthetic molecule that reactivated dormant HIV in cells. The molecule killed one-quarter of infected cells within a day. The researchers demonstrated the molecule’s effectiveness in mice and published their results in September in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens.

The human immunodeficiency virus enters cells and changes its own RNA to DNA, which becomes part of the DNA of the host cells, said Matthew Marsden, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology and leading author of the paper. The host cells then produce copies of the virus that can infect other cells.

Anti-retroviral medications reduce the amount of HIV in an infected person by preventing the virus from multiplying, said Christina Ramirez, a professor of biostatistics at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who also worked on the project. Without medications, HIV would destroy immune system cells and leave the patient vulnerable to infections by other pathogens.

“I think (anti-retroviral medication) is a triumph of modern medicine,” Ramirez said. “(HIV) is not the death sentence that it used to be.”

However, some infected cells do not actively produce new viruses and are not affected by anti-retroviral medications, Marsden said. He added HIV can hide and persist indefinitely in certain long-living immune system cells, and their research aims to eliminate this latent HIV reservoir of cells.)

For More Info