NIH Researchers' HIV Finding May Lead to New Treatments

Article

The National Institutes of Health says researchers have found a way to block a step in the HIV invasion process that may lead to the development of new drugs.

On July 12, 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that NIH researchers have blocked a step in the process HIV uses to inject its genetic material into cells. NIH researchers discovered the step in the HIV invasion process and used cultures of cells and tissues to find a way to chemically block the step and prevent HIV genetic material from entering cells.

The findings, published in Cell Host & Microbe, may lead to the development of new drugs to prevent HIV.

HIV infects a cell when a protein on the surface of HIV binds to the molecules on the cells surface. After biding, a sequence of events leads to HIV’s outer membrane fusing with the cell’s membrane. HIV genetic material then enters the cell. The researchers found that the binding process activates the TMEM 16F protein, which “transfers another molecule inside the cell membrane, phosphatidylserine, to the membrane’s outer surface.” 

The researchers blocked the transfer of phosphatidylserine to the cell surface or attached another molecule to phosphatidylserine so it could not bind with HIV. This blocking prevented the virus from infecting the cell. NIH stated that “theoretically, developing drugs that could block each of these steps could provide the basis for treatments to prevent HIV from infecting cells, but much more research is needed.”

The NIH study was led by Leonid V. Chernomordik, PhD, at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Source: NIH

Recent Videos
Simon Wright from Almac Pharma Services chats about shifting demand for commercial manufacturing services and how service providers are adapting to meet demand.
Ian Lafferty from Upperton discusses the trends and challenges facing sterile manufacturing and how partnering with CDMOs can help innovators progress to the market.
Industry Outlook 2025: The Rising Prominence of AI in Pharma
Adam Sherlock, CEO of Qinecsa, discusses the changing political landscapes in the US and Europe and how that may affect the bio/pharma industry.
Adam Sherlock, CEO of Qinecsa Solutions
Related Content
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.