WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (AFP) - US scientists unveiled Sunday a new method of fighting viral replication in AIDS, which they believe could help combat the deadly disease.

The new approach involves inserting small molecules between protein segments, preventing them from forming an enzyme used by the AIDS virus to reproduce and spread, chemist Jean Chmielewski of Purdue University told the American Chemical Society here.

The method blocks the interaction of two identical proteins that make up the HIV protease, one of three essential enzymes used by the AIDS virus to replicate.

"At this stage, we've been able to synthesize some fairly potent small-molecule inhibitors of HIV protease, which, in fact, block the ability of this enzyme to come together," said Chmielewski. "That, in turn, blocks its biological activity."

The method is being tested at the National Institutes of Health on HIV-infected cells.

Other treatments using a similar approach -- inhibiting HIV protease -- have been approved, but the virus can mutate easily and become resistant to those drugs, according to Chmielewski.

She said her new approach targets a part of the virus where mutation is less likely to occur.

"This might be a way to get in the back door and eliminate or reduce the problem of mutations and the possibility of drug resistance."

In 1999, an estimated 34.3 million people -- the vast majority of them in developing countries -- were infected with HIV, which causes AIDS. Some 24.5 million of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa.

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