Researchers Block Replication of AIDS Virus

A multidisciplinary team of scientists from Spanish universities and research centres, among which is the University of Valencia, has managed to design small synthetic molecules capable of joining to the genetic material of the AIDS virus and blocking its replication.

This achievement has been obtained for the first time in the world by a group of researcher led by José Gallego from Universidad Católica de Valencia "San Vicente Mártir." The University of Valencia, the Príncipe Felipe Research Centre, and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III have participated.

The newly designed synthetic molecules inhibit the output of genetic material of the virus from the infected cell nucleus to the cytoplasm, thus the virus replication is blocked and avoids the infection of other cells. The genetic material of the AIDS virus, or HIV-1, is formed by ribonucleic acid (RNA), and encodes several proteins that allow it to penetrate the human cells and reproduce within them. The new virus inhibitors, called terphenyls, developed by this group of scientists, were designed by computer to reproduce the interactions of one of the proteins encoded by the virus, the viral protein Rev.

In this way, the terphenyls join Rev's receptor in the viral RNA, preventing the interaction between the protein and its RNA receptor. This interaction is necessary for the virus genetic material to leave the infected cell nucleus and, thus, it is essential for the survival of HIV-1. The fact that the terphenyls block the virus genetic material output of the cell prevents the infection of other cells.

This discovery is the result of a close collaboration between three research groups throughout several years. Thus, the scientists of the Universitat Católica de Valencia were in charge of the computational design and verified experimentally that the terphenyls were capable of joining the Rev receptor in the viral RNA and inhibit the interaction between this RNA and the protein.
For its part, the molecules were synthesised in professor Santos Fustero's organic Chemistry laboratory in the Príncipe Felipe Research Centre and the University of Valencia. Also, through experiments with cells infected by the virus, the group of José Alcamí in the Instituto de Salud Carlos III demonstrated that the inhibitors block the replication of the HIV-1 and inhibit the function of the Rev protein, confirming this way the validity of the models generated by computer.

Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies have focused on the development of medicines that act on target proteins, as the approach to the receptors made out of RNA is considerably complex.

Although several natural antibiotics act at the bacterial ribosomal RNA level, up to now designing by computer a new synthetic chemical entity capable of joining RNA target and have a relevant pharmacological effect was not possible. The terphenyl structures identified in this research could open new ways to approach other therapeutic targets formed by nucleic acids.
On the other hand, the infection by HIV affected 34 million people worldwide in 2010, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The emergence of resistance to the current antiretroviral therapies and the lack of an effective vaccine highlight the necessity of identifying the new medicines that act on other virus targets. Rev protein constitutes one of this alternative targets, but so far they it has not been possible to develop antiviral agents based in their inhibition.

The results of this research have been the objectives of a patent application, and the three laboratories involved in the research keep their collaboration with the objective of improving the pharmacological properties of new Rev inhibitors.

Untreated HIV Carriers Transmit Resistant Viruses

Human-Immunodeficiency Viruses that resist AIDS medicines are primarily transmitted by people who are not actually undergoing treatment. In order to prevent a spread of the resistant viruses increased efforts in prevention and early diagnosis of new infections are needed, as concluded by the Swiss HIV Cohort Study that is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Around one in every ten newly infected HIV carriers in Switzerland has viruses that are resistant to at least one of the three classes of drugs used to treat AIDS. Contrary to previously held assumptions, resistant viruses are primarily transmitted by people who are not yet receiving treatment, according to the reports in "Clinical Infectious Diseases" from the researchers headed by Roger Kouyos and Huldrych Günthard at Zurich University Hospital.

Reconstruction of transmission chains - In their molecular epidemiological analysis of 1674 male carriers of HIV who had sex with other men, the researchers demonstrated resistant viruses in 140 patients. The research group reconstructed the transmission chains of these viruses on the basis of the patients' estimated infection dates and the degree of genetic relatedness of their blood-borne viruses. Most of the transmission chains commence in HIV carriers who were not yet undergoing treatment at the time at which the resistant viruses were transmitted.

"We were astonished to note that the resistant viruses are primarily brought into circulation by untreated people," said Günthard. "Previously we had assumed that the resistant viruses came from patients for whom treatment had failed as resistances were produced while treatment was ongoing."

Early diagnosis is vital - The principal role of untreated HIV carriers in the transmission of resistant viruses means that combating these resistant strains is not solely reliant on optimised treatment, but also on preventing transmission by people who are not undergoing treatment. Prevention and early detection of newly infected persons are particularly vital in this respect. "In contrast to other tests, such as that for hepatitis, the HIV test requires that permission is obtained from the patient," explained Günthard. Since many doctors are reluctant to discuss their patients' sexuality with them openly, many infections are not discovered until much later than they could and should have been. While progress in medicine has robbed AIDS of its deadly effect, Günthard went on to stress, "there is still a great deal to be done."

The Swiss HIV Cohort Study - The aim of the study, which started in 1988, is to better understand HIV infection and AIDS, and improve the treatment of patients. All of Switzerland's specialist HIV clinics (Basel, Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, St. Gallen and Zurich) collect data on treatment and the progress of the disease. Currently over 8,800 people are taking part in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study, of whom almost one third are women.

Aloe vera helps reverse cancer and AIDS

One of the best kept secrets in the nutritional field is aloe vera. Commonly recognized for soothing ulcers, hemorrhoids, sunburns, wounds and other skin ailments, many don't know the power pure raw aloe vera juice has for improving and even reversing serious diseases that baffle mainstream medicine.

That's because those claims are suppressed.

If a supplement or nutritional product promotes any kind of cure, the FDA and other agencies send their bootjack militia to raid them. A frightening example occurred in Tampa, Florida a couple of decades ago as research physician Ivan Danhoff MD was attempting to crash the medical mafia's cancer party. That's when his nutritional clinic was using aloe extracts and curing terminal cancer patients from hospice. Health agency thugs raided, pulling IVs out of patients whose condition had improved dramatically. Many died months later. The clinical trial was going by FDA guidelines to get the aloe extract approved

Improving on nature is probably unnecessary with aloe vera

The desire to modify or isolate ingredients from aloe vera to create an accepted medical model that is efficacious without side effects is commendable. But it appears Big Pharma and the cancer industry's good fellas want to protect their turf. Allowing an actual cure would even put the cancer cure fund raisers out of business. Most store shelf aloe vera juices don't do much beyond soothing the minor ailments mentioned earlier. Those juices are processed, heated, and diluted. That's not the case with all aloe vera products. The right aloe vera juice products are miracle healers

The most dramatic clinical proof of pure raw aloe vera juice comes from research done with AIDS patients. Almost all who were put on a regimen of daily aloe vera juice got better with white T cell counts skyrocketing. It's obvious that aloe vera is a potent immune booster, which implies it can be applied to other diseases.

One of the AIDS patients in this trial was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer and told he had less than two months to live. His liver was so tumor riddled it was four times its normal size. He continued with the juice, improved gradually, and within a year all his tumors were gone.

A doctor involved with this trial, pathologist H. Reginald McDaniel MD, was at first skeptical. But now he has seriously ill patients using aloe successfully. What turned him around was his own illness, a viral pneumonia for which conventional medicine had no answer. He was given a couple of cases of aloe juice, and his cure turned him into an aloe advocate.

Two short videos covering the aloe AIDS/cancer story are linked at the end of this paragraph. The last part of video 2 is censored, evidently to exclude information for ordering that particular juice. Promoting non-pharmaceutical AIDS and cancer cures is a no-no with the FDA. That data was probably pulled to protect them from FDA harassment

Aloe's healing power known for ages

The juice's power has been known by indigenous groups for ages. Franciscan Friar Romano Zago discovered how to make the juice from Brazilian Indians, used it with local villagers, and published his findings in the 1980s. He used their recipe based on the indigenous aloe arborescense plant . Father Zago's juice and others are from whole leaves. It's possible to get aloe juices without leaf skins (filleted) or reduced aloin content to minimize potential diarrhea side effects.

Immune Protein Found to Block HIV Spread in Some

One percent of people infected with HIV have a second line of defense deep in their immune system, which serves as a back-up for the body's defenses that get wiped out by the virus. These people, known as "controllers," are able to maintain long-term control of HIV without a daily regimen of antiviral medication because of a defensive immune protein, known as A3, which blocks the virus from spreading throughout their body.

Scientists from Northwestern University suggested their findings could help shorten the drug treatment required for others who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. "Preserving and even increasing this defense in cells may make more HIV-infected persons into controllers and prevent HIV from rebounding to high and damaging levels when anti-HIV medications are stopped," the study's senior author, Dr. Richard D'Aquila, director of Northwestern's HIV Translational Research Center, said.

In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed the cells of controllers in a lab. They found that these rare individuals have a greater supply of the A3 protein in specific white blood cells called resting memory T cells. Any new HIV made from those cells is rendered harmless by A3 and is unable to infect other cells. Unlike other cells in the immune system that are unable to recognize HIV once it mutates, A3 is part of the so-called intrinsic immune system that isn't fooled by the virus. "The intrinsic immune system recognizes the basic guts of the virus -- the nucleic acids -- that HIV can't change and then damages those nucleic acids," D'Aquila explained.

The researchers suggested that earlier treatment could help others eventually maintain control of their HIV without medication by protecting their reserves of A3.

"Perhaps starting anti-HIV drugs very soon after HIV is caught, rather than the current practice of waiting until later to start, would work like the controllers' first line of defense," D'Aquila said. "If we preserve A3, it could minimize HIV's spread through the body as this protein seems to do in controllers."

The researchers noted there are several cases of early HIV treatment resulting in long-term control of the virus. For example, in January 2013, a baby born to an HIV-positive woman became infected with the virus but was given anti-HIV drug treatment within 36 hours of birth. That baby is now off antiviral medication and apparently cured of HIV, D'Aquila said.

If HIV remains unchecked for several months, however, the researchers suggested reserves of A3 are simply wiped out. They are currently working to develop a drug that would boost the A3 protein. "Early-as-possible detection -- much easier with our new technology -- and early drug treatment will be the future of HIV therapy," D'Aquila concluded. He added that the new U.S. health law, the Affordable Care Act, now requires insurance companies to pay for routine HIV testing.