Spanish scientists have developed a method of arming cells against the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Armed cells do not allow the virus to enter their interior, thus preventing it from multiplying. Cells that are immune to the virus have a more rigid cell membrane than the natural one, which acts as a shield against the intruder.
Most of the experience to date in the treatment and prevention of AIDS has been to stop the virus from growing after it has penetrated the cell. HIV easily gets to it, because after attaching to the cell membrane that surrounds the cytoplasm, due to the delicacy and fluidity of the membrane, the virus penetrates inside, then binds with the nucleic acid of the cell and multiplies freely.
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and F, lix Goni, director of the Department of Biophysics at CSIC-University of the Basque Country Mixed Center chose a lesser-used way of protecting against HIV – stopping the virus from entering the cell.
The cell membrane shows a certain degree of fluidity and mobility. We have developed a procedure for its stiffening. In the future, it will be possible to develop drugs that increase the rigidity of cell membranes and thus stop the virus from entering cells, explains F, lix Goni.
Scientists started working on cell arming 3 years ago. They used various techniques in the field of chemistry and molecular biology in their research.
At the Institute of Applied Chemistry of Catalonia (CSIC, Barcelona), the GT11 molecule was created by chemical organic synthesis methods. Santos Manes from the National Biotechnology Center studied viral infection in cells. The CSIC-University of the Basque Country set out to demonstrate at the molecular level changes in the fluidity of the cell membrane, the increase in its rigidity after the introduction of the GT11 molecule, and the virus’s response to the stiffening of the cell membrane.
According to F, the lix Goni method developed by a Spanish research consortium to increase the stiffness of cell walls, which becomes impenetrable to the virus, is entirely new. There is a product on the market called Enfurvitide, which prevents HIV from entering the cell, but Goni says it works in a different way. (Enfuvirtide prevents the virus from entering the cell by attaching to the cell receptor.) (PAP)