HIV Researchers: Made Infection Pathway Visible; Saw How AIDS Pathogens Multiplied in the Body
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
A research team led by Prof. Christian Eggeling from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the University of Oxford has succeeded in using high-resolution imaging to make visible how the HI virus spreads between living cells and which molecules it requires for this. Using superresolution STED fluorescence microscopy, the researchers provide direct proof for the first time that the AIDS pathogen creates a certain lipid environment for replication. "We have thus created a method for investigating how this multiplication can potentially be prevented," says Christian Eggeling. The results were published in Science Advances on October 2, 2019.
[...] They found out that only certain lipids interact with the HI virus. Although these lipids were already known in principle, the research team was able to prove this interaction directly in living and infected cells for the first time.
"This provides us with a potential target for antiviral drugs," says Christian Eggeling. "Knowing which molecules the HI virus needs in order to leave the cell and multiply is a crucial prerequisite for investigating how this can be prevented. With our technology, we can now follow this directly."
[...] Christian Eggeling has already researched new superresolution fluorescence microscopy techniques at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gittingen in the group of Stefan W. Hell. Together with Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner, Stefan Hell received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2014. In Jena, Eggeling is now working closely with biologists and physicians to find out how these methods can be used to detect diseases earlier and more accurately and possibly even prevent them.
Reference: C. Favard, J. Chojnacki, P. Merida, N. Yandrapalli, J. Mak, C. Eggeling, D. Muriaux: HIV-1 Gag specifically restricts PI(4,5)P2 and cholesterol mobility in living cells creating a nanodomain platform for virus assembly. In: Science Advances 2019, 5. "
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw8651.
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