A group of German biologists have created an agent capable of eradicating viral -DNA provirus integrated into the genome of a host-cell most cells infected with HIV-1, the most contagious the virus that causes AIDS type.
So far it has been possible to suppress the spread of the virus in the human body by retroviral treatment, but the provirus remained in the cells of the human body.
The preparation developed by German researchers from the Medical Faculty of Technische Universität Dresden, the Heinrich Pette Institute and the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, is a catalytic enzyme genetic recombination.
Brec1 called, has been tested in vitro and in mice infected with virulent human cells. And eliminates the virus in more than 90% of infected cells, according to a report in Nature.
The important thing is that antiviral successes have been achieved without cytotoxic side effects or genotoxic measurable. From these results, Brec1 is positioned as a promising candidate to improve HIV therapies.
"Not only are patients with HIV who could benefit from this finding, but also many other patients suffering from diseases affecting the genome. We are about to see the beginning of an era of surgery genome," said Professor Frank Buchholz, head of the group of scientists from the University of Dresden.