written by: Ivey Ingalls-Rubin

Those infected with the Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) have been able to live their daily lives without being affected by some of HIVs’ most harrowing symptoms. This has all been possible due to the development of new drugs; manufactured to concentrate on three particular enzymes that the virus produces.

Now this all sounds difficult enough without HIV being able to contain dozens of mutations of itself which rendered many drug concoctions useless, leaving the infected riddled with symptoms.

All thanks to the researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the National Institutes of Health a fourth protein has been identified and focused on.

This particular protein is called NEF and is crucial in HIVs’ lethality. As you can see in the simplified image, it binds with the host protein, just as a lock and key fit.

By blocking off the “key hole” where NEF binds to the host protein, researchers believe it is possible and highly probable to slow or even stop the progression of HIV in infected individuals.

The revelations of modern medicine never cease to amaze.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140128153948.htm