Biotech Updates

Protein Interaction In HIV Treatment

March 9, 2012

New findings in the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in France published in the journal Nature Immunology points to the protein SAMHD1 to affect the human pathogen HIV. The protein is present in white blood cells, a collective term for macrophages and dendritic cells that destroy pathogens in the human body.

The team found that the SAMHD1 protein deprives HIV-1 of deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) required for virus deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) replication when it invades the white blood cells. In addition, the team discovered that viral protein X (Vpx) found in HIV-2 degrades the SAMHD1 protein, enabling the virus to colonize the macrophages. '

"The findings may explain why certain anti-HIV drugs used today are more effective under some circumstances and not others," says Professor Baek Kim of the University of Rochester Medical Center in the United States, one of the authors of the paper. 'It also provides new insights on how many other viruses that afflict people operate in the body.' Current research focus is on the effect of Vpx in the virulence of HIV-1 and -2.

The research news can be viewed at http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS_FP7&ACTION=D&DOC=7&CAT=NEWS&QUERY=0135f10a9ba5:69ea:23c0745d&RCN=34356