Photo: Gary Hampton/World Lung Foundation

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NAIROBI,  – Scientists have finally discovered the structure of a key enzyme found in HIV and similar viruses, a breakthrough that has crucial implications for HIV treatment.

Researchers from Imperial College London, in the UK, and Harvard University, in the US, developed a crystal that could reveal the structure of integrase – an enzyme used by HIV to integrate its genetic material into a host cell.

Many researchers had tried and failed to unravel the three-dimensional structure of integrase, which is bound to viral DNA. When someone is infected with HIV, the virus uses integrase to paste a copy of its genetic information into the person’s DNA.

The new study, published in the latest edition of Nature, a scientific journal, revealed how a class of life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs – integrase inhibitors – functions. The drugs work by blocking integrase, but for a long time scientists did not understand fully how the medicines managed to do this, or how to improve them.

“We now know how drugs that target integrase – such as Isentress [an integrase inhibitor produced by pharmaceutical company Merck & Co] – bind to and block integrase, meaning it is now possible to improve the drugs on the market,” Dr Peter Cherepanov, of Imperial College London, one of the study’s lead authors, told IRIN/PlusNews.

This is the holy grail of HIV research … it opens a whole new door for manufacturers of HIV medication

“Now we have this information, drug developers can modify the available drugs to work better – for instance, to bind tighter to integrase,” he said. “We will also be able to better understand and explain HIV drug resistance, since we now know how these HIV drugs work.”

Using a version of integrase borrowed from a retrovirus similar to HIV, the researchers were able to grow a crystal after more than 40,000 unsuccessful attempts.

“This is the holy grail of HIV research,” said Dr Matilu Mwau, a virus researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. “It has the potential to increase the repertoire of drugs to treat HIV; it opens a whole new door for manufacturers of HIV medication.”

“In the developing world we do not tailor-make drug combinations for HIV patients – we treat HIV from a public health perspective, where most people are put on a similar combination,” he said. “More drugs available mean better chances for people to be put on second- and third-line treatment regimens where first-line drugs don’t work.”

kr/kn/he source.irinews

Kano (Nigeria) – Relief agencies are struggling to help the some 18,000 displaced people in 17 makeshift camps in and around the central Nigerian city of Jos.

Most of the displaced do not have enough food and they lack access to toilet facilities and safe drinking water, Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) head Auwalu Mohammed told IRIN.

Local aid agencies and the state authorities say they were unprepared for the scale of destruction, he said.

The capacity of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and NRC is overstretched, he said, adding that a lack of coordination among local relief organizations is hampering the humanitarian effort.

“There is no synergy between the organizations providing relief. We don’t have an avenue to coordinate the assistance we provide or to know what the needs of the IDPs are and which camps need what materials,” he told IRIN.

“Our resources are limited but if we could all harness our resources and coordinate our activities, we would enhance the assistance we provide these desperate people.”

As of 27 January 31 women had given birth in police stations and in the central mosque in the Jos neighbourhood of Bukuru, said local midwife Binta Hassan. Two of the babies have died.

Thousands of people fled violence that erupted in Jos on 17 January. Local authorities say 326 people died.

Though previous violence in Plateau State saw higher death tolls, an “unprecedented” number of residents were displaced this time because their houses were destroyed, according to Red Cross.

Local and international aid agencies, including ActionAid and Médecins Sans Frontières, are launching operations to help the displaced.

source.irinnews