New strategy to halt HIV growth: block its sugar and nutrient pipeline. HIV has a voracious sweet tooth, which turns out to be its Achilles' heel, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine and Vanderbilt University.
After the virus invades an activated immune cell, it craves sugar and nutrients from the cell to replicate and fuel its wild growth throughout the body.
Scientists discovered the switch that turns on the immune cell's abundant sugar and nutrient pipeline. Then they blocked the switch with an experimental compound, shutting down the pipeline, and, thereby, starving HIV to death. The virus was unable to replicate in human cells in vitro.
The discovery may have applications in treating cancer, which also has an immense appetite for sugar and other nutrients in the cell, which it needs to grow and spread.
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015/05/hivs-sweet-tooth-is-its-downfall.html
[Abstract]: http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004864
(Score: 2) by Joe on Monday June 01 2015, @10:35PM
The virus hasn't mutated a gene to turn X back on again
HIV doesn't have an effective mechanism to induce a specific mutation in a cellular gene. Sure, HIV can integrate next to a gene and affect its ability to be transcribed, but this is a non-specific process that only has limited preference for more "open" sections of the genome.
how can it not hinder the cell's performance?
It definitely will affect the ability of T cells to recognize an infection (c-Myc is important for the strength of signal through the TCR) and their ability to expand in number (dNTPs are needed for this).
Is this going to be a great antiviral for HIV?
No, but it may have some use as a short-term combination treatment with other antivirals (e.g. post-exposure prophylaxis).
- Joe