A team of Penn State College of Medicine researchers has discovered a new step in the replication process of a retrovirus — a development that has the potential to shed light on how HIV replicates itself.
Infectious diseases professor Leslie Parent led the research team in their new discovery.
Discovering a new step in the replication process is important because a drug cannot be developed to combat HIV until its path route through the cell is understood, Parent said.
The study was done on the retrovirus Rous sarcoma, which affects chickens, Parent said. The retroviruses, like HIV, could use a pathway similar to Rous sarcoma to replicate themselves, she said.
This replication process begins with the production by messenger RNA of a protein called Gag. The research team discovered that once the virus starts to replicate itself, there is a step where Gag protein enters the nucleus of a cell and binds itself to the viral RNA there, Parent said.
The Gag protein then binds to an “export factor” which allows it to leave the nucleus, she said.
Despite this discovery, Parent says more research needs to be done on the subject.
“This is still a kind of basic science question that has potential to lead to something,” Parent said.
Rous sarcoma and HIV do not behave in exactly the same way, so to say a cure can now be found for HIV would be an overstatement, Parent said.
The research team’s study is based on a 2002 experiment where a drug was applied to a cell with the virus that allowed Gag protein to be seen in the nucleus, Parent said.
Parent called this the “eureka moment” that prompted the research team to investigate how Gag enters the nucleus.
Eight years later, the mechanisms of the Gag protein’s pathway to the nucleus are now understood, Parent said.
But the Penn State community is fortunate enough to see little of the HIV epidemic, said Suzanne Zeman, who oversees the HIV testing program for the Health Promotion and Wellness Department.
“There is not a high incident rate of HIV at all here,” she said. “In general, the rate is extremely low.”
Despite a low HIV incident rate, University Health Services provides students with free, confidential HIV testing by appointment, which is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Zeman said.
Testing is also provided downtown by The AIDS Project, 141 W. Beaver Ave., and Planned Parenthood, 137 S. Pugh St., Zeman said.