Protein discovery could fast track cure for HIV

Australian and Canadian researchers have made what may turn out to be the most significant breakthrough yet in the fight against HIV, revealing this week that they have solved the mystery of how the virus is able to infect resting T-cells.

One of the major obstacles to the treatment of HIV is its ability to infect these cells, which can in effect harbour the virus and protect it from treatments and the immune system, sometimes for years until it is rewoken.

In a study published this week in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers from the Burnet Institute, Monash University, The Alfred Hospital, Westmead Millennium Research Institute and the University of Montreal, show for the first time the mechanism by which HIV is able to infiltrate resting CD4-T cells and integrate its genetic material, a process known as latency.

“We have shown that a family of proteins, called chemokines, that guide resting cells through the blood and into lymph node tissue can “unlock the door” and allow HIV to enter and set up a silent or “latent” infection,” explained professor Sharon Lewin, co-head of the Burnet Institute’s Centre for Virology and Director of The Alfred’s Infectious Diseases Unit.

Coauthor of the stidy and clinical immunologist Dr Paul Cameron said that the discovry paves the way for new treatment options which could block latent infection. “This new laboratory model of latent HIV infection can also be used to screen drugs that may one day eliminate latent infection,” he said.

According to Professor Brendan Crabb, director of the Burnet Institute, the discovery heralds a completely new paradigm in treatments for HIV and AIDS.

“We have been working on HIV for close to thirty years and it’s really only now that we’re beginning to see that a cure for HIV might be achievable and needs to be a major scientific priority,” Professor Crabb said.