PROTEIN THAT CAN KNOCK OUT HIV-SAMHD1

In a pioneering research, an international team of scientists claims to have identified a protein that can knock out HIV, which causes AIDS, by starving it of raw materials it needs to reproduce. The research has in fact revealed a mechanism by which the immune system tries to halt spread of HIV, andharnessing this mechanism may pave the way for therapeutic research aimed at slowing the virus’ progression to AIDS. Recent studies have found that immune cells, called dendritic cells, containing the protein are resistant to infection by HIV. When a virus, like HIV, infecta a cell, it hijacks the cell’s molecular material is in the form of deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs), which are the building blocks for DNA. Once the virus replicates the resulting DNA molecule containes all the genes of the virus and instructs the cell to make more viruses. The team found that the protein-SAMHD1 protects the cell from viruses by destroying the pool of dNTPs, leaving the virus without any builiding blocks to make its genetic information.