• Bee venom may offer protection
A NEW research has revealed that ‘functional cure’ for Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) can be achieved for some patients diagnosed early.
Meanwhile, another research has found that a component of bee venom packaged in super-tiny blobs can knock out HIV.
Treating people with HIV rapidly after they have become infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be enough to achieve a ‘functional cure’ in a small proportion of patients, according to the research published in PLoS Pathogens.
According to the report of the research culled from DailMailOnline, the treatment, for now, is only effective in about one in ten people diagnosed early, but most people who are infected with HIV do not learn of their infection until the virus has fully taken hold.
Scientists in France followed 14 patients who were treated within ten weeks of becoming infected with the virus. They received treatment for three years before stopping taking the medication.
The scientists found that even when the patients had been off therapy for more than seven years, they still showed no signs of the virus bouncing back – normally the virus rebounds if treatment is stopped.
The research, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, follows news earlier this month about a baby girl in Mississippi, United States (U.S.), being effectively cured of the HIV after receiving very early treatment.
Christine Rouzioux, a professor at Necker Hospital and University Paris Descartes, and a member of the initial team, which identified HIV 30 years ago, said the new results showed that the number of infected cells circulating in the blood of these patients, known as ‘post-treatment controllers’, kept falling even without treatment.
“Early treatment in these patients may have limited the establishment of viral reservoirs, the extent of viral mutations, and preserved immune responses. A combination of those may contribute to control infection in post-treatment controllers,” she said.
“The shrinking of viral reservoirs ... closely matches the definition of ‘functional’ cure,” she added.
A functional cure describes when the virus is reduced to such low level that it is kept at bay even without continuing treatment. The virus, however, is still detectable in the body.
Researchers testing the delivery system in lab dishes, in a report published in Antiviral Therapy, noted that these nanoparticles attach to and destroy the virus without damaging cells, offering an early glimpse of a technology that might -with a lot more testing -prevent HIV infection in some people.
“This is definitely a novel approach,” says Antony Gomes, a physiologist at the University of Calcutta in India, who studies the medical use of venoms. “There are very few reports available on venom-based treatment against viruses. This type of research has the potential to proceed further for product development.”
Physician-researcher Joshua Hood of Washington University in St. Louis and his colleagues tested the toxin-carrying nanoparticles on HIV in the lab. The particles preferentially locked onto HIV and delivered their cargo: The venom component, a toxin called melittin, poked holes in HIV’s protective protein coat, leading to sharply reduced amounts of virus, the researchers report in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy.
They also tested it in healthy human cells obtained from vaginal walls. Although melittin is known to degrade cell membranes, these vaginal cells were largely unperturbed by the treatment because the nanoparticles holding the melittin come equipped with protective structures attached on their outsides. These act as bumpers to prevent the nanoparticles - and particularly the toxin they carry - from contacting the cell membrane. That allows the nanoparticle to bind to the much smaller virus using a specific lock-and-key structure that fits onto the virus’s protein shell.
A NEW research has revealed that ‘functional cure’ for Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) can be achieved for some patients diagnosed early.
Meanwhile, another research has found that a component of bee venom packaged in super-tiny blobs can knock out HIV.
Treating people with HIV rapidly after they have become infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be enough to achieve a ‘functional cure’ in a small proportion of patients, according to the research published in PLoS Pathogens.
According to the report of the research culled from DailMailOnline, the treatment, for now, is only effective in about one in ten people diagnosed early, but most people who are infected with HIV do not learn of their infection until the virus has fully taken hold.
Scientists in France followed 14 patients who were treated within ten weeks of becoming infected with the virus. They received treatment for three years before stopping taking the medication.
The scientists found that even when the patients had been off therapy for more than seven years, they still showed no signs of the virus bouncing back – normally the virus rebounds if treatment is stopped.
The research, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, follows news earlier this month about a baby girl in Mississippi, United States (U.S.), being effectively cured of the HIV after receiving very early treatment.
Christine Rouzioux, a professor at Necker Hospital and University Paris Descartes, and a member of the initial team, which identified HIV 30 years ago, said the new results showed that the number of infected cells circulating in the blood of these patients, known as ‘post-treatment controllers’, kept falling even without treatment.
“Early treatment in these patients may have limited the establishment of viral reservoirs, the extent of viral mutations, and preserved immune responses. A combination of those may contribute to control infection in post-treatment controllers,” she said.
“The shrinking of viral reservoirs ... closely matches the definition of ‘functional’ cure,” she added.
A functional cure describes when the virus is reduced to such low level that it is kept at bay even without continuing treatment. The virus, however, is still detectable in the body.
Researchers testing the delivery system in lab dishes, in a report published in Antiviral Therapy, noted that these nanoparticles attach to and destroy the virus without damaging cells, offering an early glimpse of a technology that might -with a lot more testing -prevent HIV infection in some people.
“This is definitely a novel approach,” says Antony Gomes, a physiologist at the University of Calcutta in India, who studies the medical use of venoms. “There are very few reports available on venom-based treatment against viruses. This type of research has the potential to proceed further for product development.”
Physician-researcher Joshua Hood of Washington University in St. Louis and his colleagues tested the toxin-carrying nanoparticles on HIV in the lab. The particles preferentially locked onto HIV and delivered their cargo: The venom component, a toxin called melittin, poked holes in HIV’s protective protein coat, leading to sharply reduced amounts of virus, the researchers report in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy.
They also tested it in healthy human cells obtained from vaginal walls. Although melittin is known to degrade cell membranes, these vaginal cells were largely unperturbed by the treatment because the nanoparticles holding the melittin come equipped with protective structures attached on their outsides. These act as bumpers to prevent the nanoparticles - and particularly the toxin they carry - from contacting the cell membrane. That allows the nanoparticle to bind to the much smaller virus using a specific lock-and-key structure that fits onto the virus’s protein shell.
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