Quote:

Rob Kamphausen said:


The research has targeted reverse transcriptase, a submiscroscopic protein composed of two coiled chains of amino acids. It is considered HIV's key protein.

"Reverse transcriptase is very important in the biology of AIDS," Smith said. "If you can really inhibit reverse transcriptase, you can stop AIDS."





I won’t explain this very well because I don’t properly understand it.

The HIV virus is a retrovirus. What this means is that its genome consists of RNA molecules. In order to infect the human body it uses the enzyme reverse transcriptase to encode a copy of its RNA genome onto a strand of DNA. This strand makes a further copy creating a double helix which can then integrate with cells in the host body.

Unfortunately the process is very untidy and inaccurate. The copy is never quite the same as the original and so the virus is in a constant state of rapid mutation and evolution. That’s the problem with HIV – it’s nigh impossible to treat a virus that is aggressively mutating all the time. It’s the reason why so many researchers are targeting reverse transcriptase in the hope of preventing the virus from making copies of itself in the first place.

Last edited by backwards7; 2005-02-13 1:14 AM.