Baltimore, Maryland -
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have uncovered a series of proteins that enable HIV to bypass the human body's natural anti-viral defenses and multiply, a discovery they say could lead to new treatment drugs for HIV and AIDS.
"We've discovered a new link in the chain that allows the HIV to overcome the cellular resistant factor and to infect human cells," Doctor Xiao-Fang Yu, associate professor at Johns Hopkins, says in an report on the research in Science magazine.
"By identifying the proteins involved in this process, we may be able to develop new drugs and therapies for preventing HIV infection," wrote Xiao-Fang Yu, who headed a research team that identified the proteins through a series of complex laboratory experiments.
According to the study, the AIDS virus contains a viral infection factor essential to escaping the human body's natural anti-viral agent.
To circumvent this protective agent, HIV acts in conjunction with a group of proteins to modify and disable the anti-viral agent, said the research team.
Meanwhile, a new study on the life expectancy of AIDS patients has found that on average people taking the HIV cocktail can survive for at least a decade longer than they would have without it.
The research, reported in The Lancet, a British medical journal, compared AIDS patients on HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy, with those before the cocktail became available.
©365Gay.com® 2003
"We've discovered a new link in the chain that allows the HIV to overcome the cellular resistant factor and to infect human cells," Doctor Xiao-Fang Yu, associate professor at Johns Hopkins, says in an report on the research in Science magazine.
"By identifying the proteins involved in this process, we may be able to develop new drugs and therapies for preventing HIV infection," wrote Xiao-Fang Yu, who headed a research team that identified the proteins through a series of complex laboratory experiments.
According to the study, the AIDS virus contains a viral infection factor essential to escaping the human body's natural anti-viral agent.
To circumvent this protective agent, HIV acts in conjunction with a group of proteins to modify and disable the anti-viral agent, said the research team.
Meanwhile, a new study on the life expectancy of AIDS patients has found that on average people taking the HIV cocktail can survive for at least a decade longer than they would have without it.
The research, reported in The Lancet, a British medical journal, compared AIDS patients on HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy, with those before the cocktail became available.
©365Gay.com® 2003
This article originally appeared on 365gay.com. Republished with permission.
