In a study of human immune cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say a molecule within HIV itself can be manipulated and amplified to force the virus into long-term dormancy, a state in which HIV does not replicate.
The Johns Hopkins team that conducted the new study had previously shown that the molecule of interest, an “antisense transcript,” or AST, is produced by HIV’s genetic material and is part of a molecular pathway that essentially puts the virus to sleep, a state known as viral latency.
The study’s leader, Fabio Romerio, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says the new findings add to a growing body of evidence that may help researchers develop a gene therapy that boosts AST production. A report on the research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was published May 9 in Science Advances.