Researchers Have Discovered The Achilles' Heel Of HIV [View all]

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http://www.businessinsider.com/protein-enables-hiv-to-thwart-the-immune-system-2012-7



One reason the human body cannot fight off an HIV infection is because a single protein the virus produces thwarts human defenses, a new study says.

When HIV enters the human body, it produces a protein called vpu that directly combats a critical defense protein of the human immune system, the study showed.

Normally, this immune system protein stops invading viruses from replicating and spreading throughout the body. But vpu disables this defense mechanism, allowing HIV to invade.

When the researchers genetically engineered the virus to lack vpu, human immune system cells could fight back against the virus, the researchers' experiments with cells in lab dishes showed.


Read more: http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/2836-hiv-human-immunity.html#ixzz20bDRsn6A