New anti-HIV drug 'promising' say researchers

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — A prototype drug, tested on lab-dish samples of the AIDS virus, has shown great promise in attacking HIV from an unprecedented direction, French researchers reported on Friday.

The drug inhibits the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at a key point -- when it uses the hijacked machinery of an infected immune cell to reassemble its genetic code.

This process, called splicing, joins together sections of viral code to form pre-messenger RNA, which is a precursor for messenger RNA (mRNA).

This molecule provides the blueprint for cranking out viral proteins and enzymes which are essential for replication.

Once these are created, baby viruses can be reproduced en masse within the cell, eventually breaking out and heading into the bloodstream,...