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Why is the human body unable to fight HIV?
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) found the answer to the question why the human body is not able to adequately combat acute HIV infection. As it turned out, the viral protein Vpu, produced by HIV during infection, directly counteracts the IRF3-protein, which regulates the immune response, thereby suppressing the immune system's ability to defend itself against a virus attack.
The scientific group of Professor Michael Gale (Michael Gale) discovered that the HIV protein Vpu specifically binds to the protein of the immune system IRF3, activating the mechanism designed to destroy the latter. That is, the virus strikes a preventive blow, avoiding a situation in which IRF3 could trigger an immune response within already infected cells. As a result, infected cells continue to exist quietly, becoming factories producing new copies of the virus.
As evidence of the importance of this mechanism for the spread of HIV within the body, researchers have shown that an HIV strain that is not capable of producing Vpu can not also hide from the immune system.
Thus, it was possible to find the Achilles heel in the arsenal, which HIV uses to overcome the protective systems of our body. This will certainly help in the creation of new antiviral drugs that could interfere with the interaction of Vpu with IRF3, thereby giving the virus to the destruction of immunity.
Now the researchers are busy developing a procedure for measuring the activity of IRF3 in blood cells.
Separately, we recall the importance of creating more and more new antiviral drugs. The fact is that the virus easily mutates and adapts to the drugs used for a certain time. So, many of the early antiviral drugs long ago lost all relevance ...