After 20 years of research, British and American scientists made a new discovery that could lead to better HIV treatment by growing a crystal that allowed them to see the structure of the enzyme, integrase. The integrase enzyme pastes a copy of its genetic information to DNA when the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects someone. Now that researchers have been able to analyze the structure of the integrase, new and improved medicines can be created.
The study took more than 40,000 trials to find the right crystal of high enough quality to see the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme that was taken from the retrovirus, Prototype Foamy Virus (PFV), which is similar to HIV.
The most common HIV treatment drugs, Isentress, from Merck & Co, and Elvitegravir, from Gilead Sciences, block the integrase enzyme, but scientists weren't sure how it worked until the crystal allowed them to actually see the enzyme getting blocked.
"Despite initially painstakingly slow progress and very many failed attempts, we did not give up and our effort was finally rewarded," said Peter Cherepanov of Imperial College London, who conducted the research with scientists from Harvard University.
Since the AIDS epidemic, about 60 millions people have died with 25 million people having died from related causes. In 2008, the United Nations revealed data showing 33.4 million people were infected with HIV and 2 million people died of AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa was the worst infected region, accounting for 67 percent of all people living with HIV.
The researchers, from Imperial College London and Harvard University, were funded by the Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health. Once the crystals were grown, researchers used a giant synchrotron machine at the Diamond Light Source in South Oxfordshire. The machine was used to collect X-ray diffraction data from the man-made crystals. This revealed the long-sought structure.
Written by Amy Munday
Huliq.com
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