HIV/AIDS German scientists deploy modified enzyme to seek and destroy HIV in mice Researchers in Germany have cured mice infected with HIV using a modified enzyme that recognizes the virus and kills it by removing it from host cells. But the process has yet to be tested on humans. New research by scientists in Germany - using a modified enzyme to kill HIV - is providing renewed hope that people living with the virus can be cured. This comes after hopes were dashed earlier this month in a case involving two patients in Boston. The researchers in Boston had hoped to cure the two patients through a bone marrow transplant, replicating the case of a patient in Germany. Known as the Berlin Patient, the man is the only person known to have been cured of the disease after a bone marrow transplant. But with the two Boston patients, the virus re-emerged after being undetectable for months. Modified enzyme This latest research could however be another potential avenue to finding a cure. Using an enzyme that has been modified to recognize and kill HIV in human cells, Professor Joachim Hauberfrom the Heinrich Pette Institute - Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology says he and his team are working to reverse the infection at the cellular level. HIV is no longer a death sentence, but millions around the world are still hoping for a cure The modified enzyme is called Tre Recombinase. The problem with HIV is that when it infects human cells, it integrates the viral genome into the human genes, and this is why [weve failed to] get rid of the infection so far, Hauber explains. After testing the enzyme on cell cultures, the experiment moved onto animals. The blood of lab mice was modified, so that the mice could be infected with HIV. After that, the experimental enzyme, Tre Recombinase, was introduced into the blood of the infected mice. The Tre Recombinase targeted the HIV-infected cells in the mice and removed the virus from the cell. The Tre Recombinase specifically targets Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) in HIV-1. LTR is the process by which HIV-1 replicates in human cells. The enzyme stops the replication process and excises the HIV from the cell. HIV attaches itself to cells, so removing it from a cell effectively detaches it from its lifeline and it dies. The researchers hope the same can be done in humans with stem cell therapy. First, they would extract blood from the patient. Then, they would introduce the Tre Recombinase to that blood. And finally, the blood would be reintroduced to the patient. View Original Image By using the patients own stem cells, the scientists expect they will be able to prevent the body from rejecting the modified blood when it is reintroduced. Over time the peripheral blood will be constituted out of blood cells that contain the molecular exciser and can get rid of the virus, and then hopefully, the functionally reconstituted immune system of the patient will kill off the remaining infected cells, says Hauber.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:56:20 +0000
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