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Natural immunity comes under spotlight in hiv fight
HIV-infected patients in whom the disease never manifests itself, known as long-term non-progressors, are the focus for researchers who are trying to establish how their bodies accomplish the feat. Now, science is shedding some light on how non-progressor immune systems function, and the researchers involved are hopeful that their findings could lead to a new class of HIV/AIDS treatments.
The researchers, from the University of Rochester Medical Center (UR), have confirmed that non-progressors maintain higher than normal levels of an enzyme called APOBEC-3G (A3G) in their white blood cells. They believe that A3G works by mutating or "editing" the HIV genetic code so that the virus can no longer reproduce.
In something of a viral arms-race however, HIV has evolved to counter A3G with its own defense protein, which tricks the white blood cell into destroying A3G. The results of the current study, published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, suggest how A3G performs its role in the immune system, and what parts of it may need to be protected so that it can continue to protect the body.
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