Slowing Down AIDS

The AIDS pandemic is not an issue to be taken lightly. It affects over 30 million people worldwide and its incidence of infection only seems to be growing. AIDS is actually the symptoms that stem from the human immunodeficiency virus, otherwise known as HIV. There are many treatments that aim to slow down the virus, but none have proven to eradicate it completely. While Dr. K. Sandeep Prabhu has not found the cure, he has added a new weapon to the field to combat the progression of the virus. He states that he has “found that increasing the expression of proteins that contain selenium negatively affects the replication of HIV.” In other words, increasing the manufacture of these proteins already found in blood slows down how fast the virus can replicate. This declaration proves to be somewhat of an understatement, as the results show that the reproduction is slowed down by at least 10-fold. Ultimately, the increase in these proteins will cause a decrease a key protein produced by the HIV virus known as Tat, which just so happens to play a critical role in replication. Not only did the research team test their hypothesis by increasing the selenium proteins, but also reducing their occurrence. In this case, when the researchers reduced the selenium proteins, the virus was able to replicate more than three times as much. Both trials suggest that there is a direct correlation between the selenium proteins and the speed at which the virus can reproduce. As a student who has always been drawn towards diseases that affect large populations, this discovery sparked my interest. It has always amazed me that with all the information and knowledge that have on such viruses that a permanent cure has not been discovered. Though not curing the disease entirely, this exciting new find will eventually lead to more effective drugs that have a dramatic effect on the life spans of those infected.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/131174.php