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New HIV Treatment [Natural]

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Professor Duo Gao

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What have we learned from studying virus structures ?

Knowledge of the biomolecular interactions which occur in these large structures is of fundamental importance. It may now be possible to design small compounds which bind to the surface of a virus and prevent it from entering a cell. Most animal viruses initiate infection and entry into host cells by attaching to receptors on the host cell membrane. Clearly the viral receptor attachment site must remain conserved. However the immune system may react to the surface of a virus and produce neutralizing antibodies. This can result in the continual changing of the antigenic surface of a virus that chronically infects a host. There is an obvious conflict here. Now known that the surfaces of a number of viruses e.g. polio, have deep clefts, canyons or pits. Residues in these canyons are often much more conserved than surrounding surface residues. It is therefore thought that these clefts may constitute the receptor binding site and that residues at the bottom of the canyon are inaccessible to antibodies and therefore under no pressure to change. Some evidence supports this hypothesis:

influenza antireceptor site is located in a cleft.
insect viruses which are not subject to an immune response do not have canyons, the receptor ligand can even be a protrusion from the surface.