Japanese scientists have developed a new substance that causes the natural death of HIV-infected cells.

In recent years, multi-drug therapy has allowed suppressing the reproduction of HIV in the body. However, this method can not remove from the body the particles of the virus that are dormant in the cells of the body. Once the medication is stopped, the virus wakes up again. Destruction of these reservoirs of HIV is a priority in the treatment of AIDS, HiTech writes..

A few years ago, a "kick and kill" method was developed, based on the search for reservoir cells and activation of the virus, so that the immune system detects and destroys them. Despite the advantages of this approach and the clinical trials conducted, there still exists the problem of the inability to effectively deactivate the virus after it has awakened.

Japanese scientists named their new method "lock-in and apoptosis" (blocking and natural death). It includes a substance synthesized by L-HIPPO, which is attached to the protein of the immunodeficiency virus Pr555Gag and suppresses the germination of the suppressed virus. When L-HIPPO is delivered to an infected cell, the virus is trapped inside it, and the cell dies during apoptosis.

The drug is still being clinically tested and is not tested on people with HIV, but the developers are sure that for today it is one of the most effective solutions to the AIDS problem.

"Unfortunately, this approach is not yet available to HIV-infected patients," said Mikako Fujita, one of the study's leaders. "First we need to improve the drugs that activate the virus, and combine them with L-HIPPO to more effectively attack the viral reservoir. This will be a big step towards full recovery from HIV. We believe that our study will help completely destroy AIDS ".