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Bee Venom Kills HIV: Nanoparticles Carrying Toxin Shown To Destroy Human Immunodeficiency Virus
A new study has shown that bee venom can kill the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated that a toxin called melittin found in bee venom can destroy HIV by poking holes in the envelope surrounding the virus, according to a news release sent out by Washington University.
Nanoparticles smaller than HIV were infused with the bee venom toxin, explains U.S. News & World Report. A “protective bumper” was added to the nanoparticle’s surface, allowing it to bounce off normal cells and leave them intact. Normal cells are larger than HIV, so the nanoparticles target HIV, which is so small it fits between the bumpers.
“Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope,” said research instructor Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, via the news release. “The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus.” Adding, “We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV. Theoretically, there isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.”
This revelation can lead to the development of a vaginal gel to prevent the spread of HIV and, it seems, an intravenous treatment to help those already infected. “Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” said Hood.
The bee venom HIV study was published on Thursday in the journal Antiviral Therapy, according to U.S. News & World Report.
This study comes on the heels of news that a Mississippi baby with HIV has apparently been cured. The mother was diagnosed with HIV during labor and the baby received a three-drug treatment just 30 hours after birth, before tests confirmed the infant was infected. The child, now 2 years old, has been off medication for about a year and shows no sign of infection.
More than 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, according to amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. Of these, 3.3 million are under the age of 15 years old. Each day, almost 7,000 people contract HIV around the globe.
ikenbotHIV antibodies neutralize 88% of worldwide HIV types & 2/3 of subtype C
A unique change in the outer covering of the virus allowed for antibodies to attach and neutralize 88% if HIV types around the world. This is known as a broadly neutralizing antibody response and was due to the body pressuring the virus to change its surface coating to have a sugar (glycan) ‘tag’ in the 332 position which then allowed the immune systems antibodies to attack it.
According to Professor Salim Abdool Karim, president of the Medical Research Council, “Broadly neutralizing antibodies are considered to be the key to making an AIDS vaccine. This discovery provides new clues on how vaccines could be designed to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies.”
Though, because the weak point at position 332 is only in ~70% of the subtype C viruses (the subtype most common in Africa), antibodies will need to be developed that can target more glycans on the virus.
Photo 1 is structure of HIV
Photo 2 is of HIV budding from a cellVia nature.com in the article “Evolution of an HIV glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibody epitope through immune escape”
New Hope of a Cure for H.I.V.New Hope of a Cure for H.I.V.
Medical researchers are again in pursuit of a goal they had all but abandoned: curing AIDS.
Until recently, the possibility seemed little more than wishful thinking. But the experiences of two patients now suggest to many scientists that it may be achievable.
One man, the so-called Berlin patient, apparently has cleared his H.I.V. infection, albeit by arduous bone marrow transplants.
More recently, a 50-year-old man in Trenton underwent a far less difficult gene therapy procedure. While he was not cured, his body was able to briefly control the virus after he stopped taking the usual antiviral drugs, something that is highly unusual.
“It’s hard to understate how the scientific community has swung in its thinking about the possibility that we can do this,” said Kevin Frost, chief executive of the Foundation for Aids Research, a nonprofit group. “Cure, in the context of H.I.V., had become almost a four-letter word.”
There were attempts in the past to cure the disease, but most experts thought it more feasible to focus on prevention and treatment.
The push for a cure might seem even less urgent now that antiviral drugs have turned H.I.V. infection from a near-certain death sentence to a chronic disease for many people.
Antiretrovirals Show Huge Promise for Halting HIV Spread in Two Major Studies
Big time news on the fight against AIDS out of Rome, and it essentially boils down to this: antiretrovirals work (at least, an astoundingly high percentage of the time when they are used correctly). At the biggest forum on HIV and AIDS in the 30-year battle against the deadly epidemic (it still kills 5,000 people a day, FYI),** two breakthrough findings show that antiretrovirals (ARVs) not only battle HIV in infected persons, but can stop the disease from spreading in two important ways**: it helps prevent HIV-positive folk from transmitting the disease, and also helps prevent non-infected people from contracting it.
A handful of big-time findings were presented, but two stand out. The first major strategy under study, known as “Treatment as Prevention,” showed that when HIV-positive people were given an early start on HIV drugs, the chances of their transmitting the virus to their non-infected partners dropped by an astounding 96 percent.
The second major finding goes by the acronym PreP, for pre-exposure prophylaxis. PreP involves giving ARVs to non-infected partners of HIV-positive subjects as opposed to the infected partner. This also works with statistically significant frequency, cutting transmission by 73 percent.
