Proteins Blocking HIV Replication

HIV is a prominent disease that has yet to have a viable cure to it. The HIV virus is so aggressive because it infects T cells, where it will then replicate and eventually weaken the entire immune system. The main problem that many of the drugs have with treating HIV is they attack the virus, which can mutate and become resistant to the treatment. Recently scientists have taken into consideration the affect that ITK proteins can have on HIV replication. The ITK will activate the T cells when there is an infection. HIV uses the same kind of route to spread through out the body as ITK. Scientists have come up with the idea that maybe inactivating the ITK protein will stop the HIV virus from entering the cells, which will lessen the chance of HIV spreading and replicating. They are predicting that using something that is already present in the body will be more effective than using a drug. This will prevent the virus mutating and becoming resistant to a drug. This article interested me the most because this is such a dominating disease that has been taking lives for too long.