Scientists proposed a new method for preventing HIV fusion with healthy cells
11 July 2018
A group of EDASA Scientific specialists from the MSU Science Park suggested using guanidine, a product of normal protein metabolism, to fight the immunodeficiency virus, writes Ogoniok magazine. The scientists, testing a number of compounds that have the potential to affect the process of binding HIV to CD4 receptors on the surface of a healthy cell, have concluded that guanidine can act as a "simulator" of the CD4 region that the virus must be connected with.
Three-dimensional modeling, scientists say, showed that HIV is not able to "distinguish" the "fake" and, linking to the base molecule, closes on itself. Guanidine in turn is dissolved in water after the fusion.
Author:
Dr. Alex Schneider