Ancient HIV stowaway may hold clue to AIDS
Source: Agencies |
December 8, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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AN HIV genetic stowaway that may have come from a related cat virus could help the AIDS virus transmit and replicate in people, United States researchers have reported.
Their finding, which has implications for designing new drugs or a vaccine against the fatal and incurable virus, may also shed light on how other viruses, such as swine flu, spread from animals to people, experts said.
And it also may help explain how an ancient virus came to cause the devastating 25-year-long pandemic of AIDS.
Dr Robert Bambara of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues found the previously unnoticed stretch of genetic material in the RNA sequence of the virus. HIV is a so-called retrovirus - it uses RNA, instead of DNA, to function.
This little bit of genetic material closely mimics a stretch of human RNA, they reported in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.
"We not only found the gene, but also a plausible explanation for why it is still there after millions of generations: its presence makes HIV dramatically better at reproducing inside of our cells," Bambara said. "This suggests new ways to shut down with drugs the ability of the virus to mass produce copies of itself."
HIV is believed to have jumped to humans from a close relative called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV, which infects chimpanzees.
"Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which infects cats, is thought to be the virus from which SIV originated and therefore an ancestor of HIV," the researchers wrote.
"HIV-related viruses have been identified in sheep, goats, horse, cattle and cats, but only the cat virus FIV seems to be a close relative of HIV and SIV."
Their finding, which has implications for designing new drugs or a vaccine against the fatal and incurable virus, may also shed light on how other viruses, such as swine flu, spread from animals to people, experts said.
And it also may help explain how an ancient virus came to cause the devastating 25-year-long pandemic of AIDS.
Dr Robert Bambara of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues found the previously unnoticed stretch of genetic material in the RNA sequence of the virus. HIV is a so-called retrovirus - it uses RNA, instead of DNA, to function.
This little bit of genetic material closely mimics a stretch of human RNA, they reported in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.
"We not only found the gene, but also a plausible explanation for why it is still there after millions of generations: its presence makes HIV dramatically better at reproducing inside of our cells," Bambara said. "This suggests new ways to shut down with drugs the ability of the virus to mass produce copies of itself."
HIV is believed to have jumped to humans from a close relative called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV, which infects chimpanzees.
"Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which infects cats, is thought to be the virus from which SIV originated and therefore an ancestor of HIV," the researchers wrote.
"HIV-related viruses have been identified in sheep, goats, horse, cattle and cats, but only the cat virus FIV seems to be a close relative of HIV and SIV."
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