Published on April 19, 2007 at 7:10 PM
Scientists in Germany scientists say they have discovered a natural ingredient in human blood that prevents the HIV-1 virus from infecting immune cells.
They say the discovery could lead to the development of a new class of drugs to fight HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.
The researchers from the the University of Ulm studied more than 1 million substances obtained from the blood of dialysis patients and found that fragments of a blood molecule they call Virus-Inhibitory Peptide (VIRIP) prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells of the human body before it penetrates them.
The researchers led by Frank Kirchhoff and Jan Muench included scientists in New York, and they also established that certain alterations in the peptide could make it even more powerful against HIV.
Kirchhoff says the discovery reveals a new target for inhibiting HIV that remains fully active against viral strains that are resistant to other drugs and offers hope to patients whose AIDS is resistant to existing drugs.
There are at present around 20 different HIV drugs categorized into four different classes; a number of HIV strains are now becoming drug resistant, and HIV resistance to one drug can lead to resistance to other drugs in the same class.
Kirchhoff says for this reason many drug classes are needed to deal with the virus.
Wolf-Georg Forssmann, a co-author of the article has devised a drug based on the discovery which is currently being tested on animals.
Forssmann and two other colleagues have a financial interest in the study.
The research is published in the current issue of the journal Cell.