Tuesday, April 29, 2008

New HIV finding could prevent drug resistance, toxic side-effects

From CBC News:
Researchers have discovered a new method of attacking the HIV virus which may offer a solution to drug resistance.

Their method involves targeting the proteins of human cells, which bind with the virus. Many of the antiretroviral drugs that are used to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, attack the proteins that exist on the surface of the virus, rendering it incapable of infecting healthy cells.

But as the virus can mutate, these targets can change and render these medications useless, even when physicians prescribe multi-drug "cocktails" that attack the virus on different fronts. ...more

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