Study Shows HIV-1 Envelope Has Permeable Pores

Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University have discovered that individual, biochemically-active HIV-1 viruses have permeable pores that make the HIV-1 envelope vulnerable to certain compounds designed to kill the virus. These findings appeared in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research, led by Roger J. Pomerantz, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Center for Human Retrovirology at Jefferson, and Hui Zhang, MD, PhD, Research Associate, is groundbreaking because it demonstrates that contrary to previous thought, the HIV-1 envelope is "open," allowing researchers to target and kill each individual virus with a group of compounds called nucleoside analog triphosphates.

"These compounds have the ability to penetrate the viral envelope, incorporate into and directly terminate the life of the virus," explains Dr. Pomerantz. "As a result, viral infectivity is potently inhibited."

Demonstrating these newly found characteristics of the viral envelope has led Jefferson researchers to propose that nucleoside analog triphosphates might also directly act as virucidal agents that may be quite useful in preventing either heterosexual and/or homosexual transmission of HIV-1. These virucidal agents, coadministered with spermicidal agents, would kill sperm, and this formula would also kill the individual HIV-1 viruses before they become infectious.

"It is important to remember that while this finding is extremely encouraging, it is not a cure for HIV-1 or AIDS," says Dr. Pomerantz." In the short-term it is our goal to use findings such as these to change AIDS from an acute disease to a chronic, treatable one."