Scientists are struggling for 20 years to invent the remedy of HIV.At last they are at the edge to unfold the mystery. There’s been a breakthrough in AIDS research. Scientists have found out where HIV, the AIDS virus, hides when it’s under attack from anti-retro viral drugs.
British and US researchers said they had developed a crystal that enabled them to see the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV and is a target for some of the newest HIV medicines.
So far, the drugs have managed to tackle HIV partially. But they are unable to get rid of the virus completely. Scientists have been searching for places where the virus could hide. Now, they believe they have found them. Ita a important breakthrough consequently lead to better treatments and perhaps a cure.
So far powerful drugs are used to prevent the virus but in fact it never works. It was a wrong assumption to target the virus. So different approach has been taken to tackle the virus.
This time target is not the virus rather the cells in which the virus is hiding. Scientists firmly believe that the new concept would work better and able to eliminate HIV Aids.
Memory T-cells are the hiding place of HIV. It’s a very important cell in the immune system. They are the cells that carry the memory to identify an infectious disease.
When a person is vaccinated against a particular disease, these memory T-cells remember how to respond if that pathogen is somehow introduced into the body. They then launch a very specific attack.
“It’s important to locate the cells where the virus hide. HIV virus kills the cells and gradually reduce the immune response… and it hides in those cells that remain in the body for the rest of your life…. And so it adapts like a chameleon.
Now scientist need to find drugs that can kill the cells in which the virus is hiding without affecting the memory T-cells that are good for the body.
So researchers are quite optimistic to develop such drugs which can kill the cells. Advancement of medical science recent years should help speed up the research.