Can bee venom help combat HIV? According to one new study, it can.
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.
Visit Washington University’s website to read more about the study.
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.
Medicine
Patients discover a lifeline in medicinal marijuana →
Quote:
Steve Cooley, a PS Organica patient who’s been HIV positive for 31 years, credits the use of medical marijuana for saving his life.
“It stops the HIV reproduction. It keeps it in check. My T (cell) counts are back to normal,” he said.
A research report published in March by scientists at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York shows marijuana may block a form of HIV found in late-stage AIDS and suggests further study.
Glow-in-the-dark cats help with AIDS research - Digital Trends →
Mayo Clinic researchers are hoping to learn more about the deadly AIDS virus in the most Internet-friendly way possible: by creating glow-in-the-dark cats.
Scientists have created genetically-modified cats that glow in the dark. That’s right, glow-in-the-dark cats! But these bio-luminescent felines weren’t created simply to make Internet users happy — they were made to help save lives.
A protein called GFP, which is commonly found in jellyfish, was added to the cats’ genetic makeup in order to allow researchers to learn more about the deadly AIDS virus and other serious human illnesses, reports the BBC. The addition of GFP lets scientists track the activity of altered genes.
“We did it to mark cells easily just by looking under the microscope or shining a light on the animal,” said Dr. Eric Poeschla, of the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, who led the study.
In addition to GFP, the cats were also given another altered gene, which is intended to help their bodies fight against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which is the feline version of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
Like HIV, FIV eliminates an infected cat’s ability to fight against illnesses. But some monkeys, who have their own form of immunodeficiency virus, are naturally able to fight back against the immune system-killing virus, and resist infection. It is one of these monkeys, the rhesus macaque, from which the antiviral gene given to the glowing cats is derived.
So far, Dr. Poeschla and his team have only tested cells from the genetically modified cats — they haven’t yet infected the poor kitties themselves with the deadly FIV. Luckily, all the cells they’ve tested so far have proven resistant to FIV infection. And if the study shows further success, it could give important clues into how HIV/AIDS affects humans, which could eventually lead to a cure of the disastrous illness.
Despite the serious, necessary and noble nature of HIV/AIDS research, something tells us that most people are going to be far more excited by the potential for glow-in-the-dark kittens than they are of curing a human plague.
Hiding from the “AIDS at 30″ media storm. →
I shuttered myself from most of the hoopla surrounding the “AIDS at 30” milestone (we seem to have agreed on June 5, 1981, when an item in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported deaths among gay men). The trauma of those early years is tough for me to revisit. Every media piece seemed to be about the past and it all felt emotionally overwrought and indulgent. I skimmed the coverage and secretly wished it would just go away.
Vaccine is found to clear the body of HIV virus →
An experimental vaccine could prove to be the ultimate weapon against AIDS, research suggests.
Studies indicate it has the potential to clear the body of all traces of the AIDS virus, HIV.
Uniquely, the injected vaccine is carried by a persistent virus which remains in the body for life.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) enables the immune system to be constantly on the alert for HIV.
Researchers in the US used different versions of the vaccine against a monkey form of the AIDS virus, Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), with outstanding results.
More than half the rhesus macaques monkies treated responded to the point where even the most sensitive tests detected no signs of SIV.
To date, most of the animals have maintained control over the virus for more than a year, gradually showing no indication they had ever been infected.
Unvaccinated monkeys infected with SIV went on to develop the monkey equivalent of AIDS, caused by the collapse of their immune systems.
The findings suggest the vaccine could be effective enough to rid the body of immunodeficiency virus completely, according to the scientists writing in the journal ‘Nature’.
Conventional antiretroviral therapies are able to control HIV infection, but cannot clear the virus from its hiding places within the immune system’s white blood cells.
Study leader Dr Louis Picker, from Oregon Health & Science University’s Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, said: “The next step in vaccine development is to test the vaccine candidate in clinical trials in humans.
"For a human vaccine, the CMV vector would be weakened sufficiently so that it does not cause illness, but will still protect against HIV.”
CMV belongs to the herpes family of viruses, and like other members of the group never leaves the body once an infection has occurred.
An estimated half of all adults in the UK carry CMV but suffer no or few symptoms.
The virus is spread through bodily fluids such as saliva and urine.
When symptoms do occur, they are similar to those of flu including a high temperature and swollen glands as well as tiredness.
People with weakened immune systems can have a more severe response.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/vaccine-is-found-to-clear-the-body-of-hiv-virus-15154765.html#ixzz1N9MacfdV