New research employing mRNA technology, which has become prominent during the Covid-19 pandemic, may provide the key to developing treatments for HIV.
One of the main challenges in combating HIV is the ability of the virus to hide within specific white blood cells, creating a “reservoir” that can reactivate and avoid both the immune system and antiretroviral drugs.
However, researchers for infection and immunity at the Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia report that they believe they have found a way to make the virus visible and thus make it easier to fight Guardian.
In a paper published in Natural Communicationresearchers were able to demonstrate that mRNA, or “messenger RNA,” a single-stranded molecule that carries instructions for making proteins, can be delivered to white blood cells.
When cells accept fat particles, the internal mRNA instructs them to expose the virus. Once visible, researchers hope that the virus will be targeted and ultimately eradicated from the body.
mRNA technology has been around for decades, but when it was used to develop coronavirus vaccines it fell into the public spotlight during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Paula Cevaal, a researcher at the Doherty Institute and co-author of the study, said Guardian Since these cells are not normally used to carry fatty foam (lipid nanoparticles (LNPs)), it was “previously impossible” to supply mRNA to the type of leukocyte that acts as HIV reservoirs.
However, Cevaal noted that researchers at the Doherty Institute have developed a new type of LNP known as cell-accepted LNP X.
“Our hope is that the design of this new nanoparticle could be a new route to HIV treatment,” she said.
Cevaal said that when her colleagues first presented the results of the LNP X experiment, they seemed too good, so the team repeated her. She was almost the same, and returned with overwhelmingly positive results. The experiment has since been repeated many more times.
“We were overwhelmed by the way it was. [much of a] The difference between daytime and daytime is because we didn’t work before, and suddenly it was working,” she said.
Whether the immune system can eliminate it on its own or need help from a specific drug regimen, additional research is needed to accurately determine how to target the virus after exposure.
The study, conducted using cells donated from HIV patients, requires safety tests from decades, perhaps decades of trials, animal studies, and subsequent safety tests before researchers can assess the effectiveness of the mRNA technology.
Dr. Jonathan Stoey, a retrourilologist and honorary scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, said he was not involved in the study, saying that research at the Doherty Institute’s lab appears to at first glance indicate a major advance in the fight against HIV.
“In the end, one big unknown ruin,” he said. “Do you need to eliminate the entire reservoir for success, or is it just a major part? If only 10% of the potential reservoir survives, is it enough to sow new infections? Only time can tell.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
