Scientists have moved a step closer tounderstanding how one of our body's own proteins helps stop the humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) in its tracks.
The study, carried out by researchers atThe University of Manchester and the Medical Research Council's NationalInstitute for Medical Research and published in Nature, provides a blueprintfor the design of new drugs to treat HIV infection, say the researchers.
Scientists in the United States and Francerecently discovered that a protein named SAMHD1 was able to prevent HIVreplicating in a group of white blood cells called myeloid cells.
Now, crucially, the teams from Manchesterand the MRC have shown how SAMHD1 prevents the virus from replicating itselfwithin these cells, opening up the possibility of creating drugs that imitatethis biological process to prevent HIV replicating in the sentinel cells of theimmune system.
"HIV is one of the most common chronicinfectious diseases on the planet, so understanding its biology is critical tothe development of novel antiviral compounds," said Dr, who led the studyin Manchester's School of Biomedicine.
"SAMHD1 has been shown to prevent the HIVvirus replicating in certain cells but precisely how it does this wasn't known.Our research has found that SAMHD1 is able to degrade deoxynucleotides, whichare the building blocks required for replication of the virus.
Co-author Dr Ian Taylor, from the MRC'sNational Institute for Medical Research, added: "We now wish to definemore precisely, at a molecular level, how SAMHD1 functions. This will pave theway for new therapeutic approaches to HIV-1 and even vaccine development."