WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (AFP) - HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, attaches itself to cholesterol-rich areas of cell membranes in order to access and proliferate inside the cell, according to a new study that suggests ways by which the virus' progress might be blocked.
"Our research raises the intriguing possibility that widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs might have an effect in humans similar to what we have found in these initial laboratory studies," said Eric Freed, senior author in the study published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study confirms researchers' suspicions that an HIV protein, called Gag, sticks to cholesterol-rich patches known as rafts in the cell's outer membrane through which the HIV virus has to pass in order to enter.
These rafts are believed to be most concentrated at points of cell-to-cell contact in the immune cells that HIV targets for infection, according to the study.
Freed and his co-author Akira Ono established, after creating several mutant forms of the Gag protein, that two pieces of the protein are needed for successful attachment by the virus.
They went on to deplete cholesterol from the rafts using two compounds: one that removes cholesterol rapidly from the cell's surface, the other that inhibits synthesis of cholesterol.
When used alone, each compound significantly reduced HIV's ability to form particles that could infect new cells, the study found.
"Additional experiments are needed to determine whether this interaction can be interrupted therapeutically to treat HIV-infected people," said Freed, an investigator with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Washington.
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