Posts Tagged ‘Hurdle’

HIV Reservoirs and Strategies to Control Them – A Major Hurdle to a Cure

HIV is one of the most feared diseases that a person can contract today, but with modern advances in treatment it no longer carries the same death sentence that it did twenty years ago. While the search for a cure continues, several hurdles exist that must be overcome. One of the main ones is the problem with HIV latency. Some researchers would even say that this is the single biggest obstacle to eradicating the disease, since treatments can eliminate up to 99 percent of the virus’ burden in a person’s body. That one percent is normally the portion of the virus that enters a latent state.

Essentially, the latency process involves HIV infecting a CD4 white blood cell as it is dividing. Next, it integrates itself with the cell’s chromosomes while some of the cells enters into a state of rest. When this occurs, the cells themselves and the HIV inside them can lay dormant in the body for years. Since Interleukin-7 can only add to their resistance by triggering a cloning process, new methods of eradicating these cells must be uncovered in order to halt HIV persistence in the body. Luckily, new tools and techniques not available in years past have given new hope to researchers trying to eliminate HIV reservoirs from the body.

Hiv

In chromosomes, DNA is coiled around proteins that are known as histones. When purge drugs are introduced that cause the DNA to uncoil, amino acids form proteins. For many researchers working on HIV eradication, forcing HIV DNA to uncoil is the key to eliminating HIV reservoirs. One such purge drug is known as SAHA and is showing promise for removing the acetyl groups that work to keep HIV latent in the body. These HDAC inhibitors may be the weapon that researchers have been waiting for, and other methods such as blocking the DNA methylation that contributes to the gumming up of the histones.

One of the major issues that confront researchers working to control HIV reservoirs is that reawakening the virus that has lain dormant without causing it to spread and infect other parts of the body that are free from infection is very difficult. Researchers in numerous facilities including the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City are working round the clock to find an effective method of dealing with HIV latency. A cure is still a long way off, but gets a bit closer with each new discovery. Overcoming HIV reservoirs will be a huge step towards eliminating the disease, but a step that will take some time to make.

HIV Reservoirs and Strategies to Control Them – A Major Hurdle to a Cure