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Source: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25061.aspx
Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV
March 7, 2013
By Julia Evangelou Strait
Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD
Nanoparticles (purple) carrying melittin (green) fuse with HIV (small circles with spiked outer ring), destroying the virus?s protective envelope. Molecular bumpers (small red ovals) prevent the nanoparticles from harming the body?s normal cells, which are much larger in size.
Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
?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,? says Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine.
The study appears in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy...
...Hood JL, Jallouck AP, Campbell N, Ratner L, Wickline SA. Cytolytic nanoparticles attenuate HIV-1 infectivity. Antiviral Therapy. Vol. 19: 95 - 103. 2013
Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV
March 7, 2013
By Julia Evangelou Strait
Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD
Nanoparticles (purple) carrying melittin (green) fuse with HIV (small circles with spiked outer ring), destroying the virus?s protective envelope. Molecular bumpers (small red ovals) prevent the nanoparticles from harming the body?s normal cells, which are much larger in size.
Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
?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,? says Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine.
The study appears in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy...
...Hood JL, Jallouck AP, Campbell N, Ratner L, Wickline SA. Cytolytic nanoparticles attenuate HIV-1 infectivity. Antiviral Therapy. Vol. 19: 95 - 103. 2013