AEGiS-UPI: HEALTH BRIEFS: HIV Takes a Ride

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HEALTH BRIEFS: HIV Takes a Ride

United Press International - November 20, 2001
Lidia Wasowicz, UPI Senior Science Writer

The AIDS virus HIV must attach itself to cholesterol-rich regions of a cell's membrane before it can do its dirty deed, researchers have found. The scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., removed cholesterol from cells and found the virus lost much of its punch, slowing its reproduction and its infection of new cells. The discovery provides a clearer roadmap of HIV's travels into and out of cells -- and a possible means of obstructing that ride, the investigators said. "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, investigator in NIAID's Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and senior author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As it enters or exits a cell, HIV must navigate the complex double-walled outer membrane which contains a mix of solid and fluid areas. Here can be found small, cholesterol-rich patches, called rafts for their ability to move like a raft on water. Rafts are thought to be most concentrated at points of cell-to-cell contact in the immune cells targeted by HIV. Any mechanism that helps HIV find and attach to rafts would help the virus spread. Conversely, even a little disruption could slow the virus's spread by hindering its ability to enter and leave cells, Freed said.

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