Ancient Genetic Defenses Against AIDS Virus Reactivated

The battle against AIDS is one of the holy grails of biomedical research, second only to curing cancer and undoing aging itself.  Now some scientists have reactivated ancient genetic defenses against retroviruses (combining the plots of at least three science fiction movies and two archeological-horror action flicks), rediscovering something even our sickened cells have forgotten.

Defensins are immune system proteins which work to defend the body by bonding with invaders to interfere with their functions.  Cyclic theta defensins might sound something a science fiction writer would say after a blow to the head, but they're a particular form of these useful compounds, called "cyclic" because the peptide chain that forms their backbone is actually circular.  (That's actually  definition of "theta" defensins, so please excuse our polysyllabic tautology.)

These defensins bond to HIV retroviruses to prevent them from entering cells - and a virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed.  This incredibly useful anti-AIDS immune equipment was first found in monkeys, but a joint team of scientists from the Universities of Central Florida, California, and the Center for Disease Control (who are kind of into this sort of thing) found the genetic code for their construction in humans. 

So why do thirty-three million people suffer?  Because vulnerability to HIV is a genetic disorder, and one we all have.  Many genetic diseases are the result of "nonsense mutations" where a random piece of code is accidentally transcribed as a stop codon, terminating construction of whatever protein that piece of DNA was responsible for.  Most of such stop mutations are rare because the victims don't breed but since HIV (or any comparable disease) wasn't a problem until recently this inability to produce theta-defensins wasn't naturally selected against.

But what Mother Nature messes up, mankind can fix: the team have experimentally reactivated the code in the lab and shown that the brand new human-made theta-defensins (back on tour after a few million years vacation!) are as effective against HIV as ever, preventing any entry into potential host cells.  Even better, they say in the future the code could be reactivated in cervicovaginal tissues by the application of a cream. 

That's right.  Anti-AIDS cream.  Thanks Science!  (Or if you want, you can stick with waving ancient texts at people and screaming "Don't do anything because it's all evil!")

Luke McKinney

Reawakening Retrocyclins: Ancestral Human Defensins Active Against HIV-1

Comments

[DarthGonzo]

Normally I don't care for the stereotype comments, but that last one got me laughing.

Nice article. Keep them coming.

[Justin]

Actually, it's less about the "don't do it because it is evil" and more about "hey don't do that because you could get AIDS." That ancient text actually has some practical stuff in it.

[Prat]

"a virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed"

A virus is not made of amino acids, its made of DNA or RNA. proteins are made up of amino acids.

This is bs not science. Articles like this are worth less than the pixels they occupy. It would have been better for the author to just post the link of the original research paper and forget about writing.

[Marcus]

@Prat
Actually, a virus is a chunk of genetic material (DNA or RNA, in this case HIV is RNA), surrounded by a layer of proteins and/or a lipid/carbohydrate envelope. It also contains the non-host provided proteins required for it to function in the host cell. In HIV's case, an example is a reverse transcriptase (All of this is dependent on the particular virus). If it was just RNA or DNA, it would just chewed up outside the cells and not be able to infect anyone.

My knowledge of the structure of HIV is a little weak, and the above is a little simplistic, but for the most part just calling it "a scrap of amino acids" is just as accurate as calling it just RNA or DNA.

I thought this was a pretty good article to describe this research...

[nbiglin]

Also @Prat:

One might also say that concluding the research is 'bs not science' on the basis of a poorly worded rhetorical flourish is just as sloppy.

[NFL Jerseys]

There is great variation in disease progression among HIV-infected individuals," he said. "This variability is influenced by the type of virus that infects a person as well as by the person's genetic makeup. Increasingly, human genes are being discovered that influence viral progression. Apobec3G is a good candidate to be one of these genes.

[Tadalis]

A virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed.
To the best of my knowledge, viruses do have DNA, if very little. That is in fact the reason they need to enter the host's cells - they need access to the DNA reproduction machinery inside to make copies of themselves.

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A virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed.
To the best of my knowledge, viruses do have DNA, if very little. That is in fact the reason they need to enter the host's cells - they need access to the DNA reproduction machinery inside to make copies of themselves.

[Laura, Adult Tricycle]

I recently read from an article that a type of protein named TRIM5 could prevents the HI virus from multiplying once it has entered the cell. While researchers are still working on the details, this is definitely an exciting news to all AIDS patients.

[pembe maske]

A virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed.
To the best of my knowledge, viruses do have DNA, if very little. That is in fact the reason they need to enter the host's cells - they need access to the DNA reproduction machinery inside to make copies of themselves.

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A virus which can't get into cells is just a scrap of amino acids waiting to be destroyed.
To the best of my knowledge, viruses do have DNA, if very little. That is in fact the reason they need to enter the host's cells - they need access to the DNA reproduction machinery inside to make copies of themselves.

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I left comments recently! It reminds me a bit about what I liked and learned about this article!