Unless the virus can lock its membrane against the cell membrane in this way, it cannot attack the cell and replicate. The journal Science reports how Dr Peter Kim, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in the US, developed the protein, called 5-Helix. There already exists another molecule developed to do the same job, and this is already being tested in clinical trials across the world. However, because it is a relatively large molecule, it can only be taken via infusion into the bloodstream, whereas the much smaller molecule synthesised by Dr Kim can be put into a tablet. Laboratory tests suggest that the new molecule is stable, and likely to work well on a variety of common HIV strains.
British scientists say they are excited by the potential offered by the discovery.
Professor Jonathan Weber, a professor in communicable diseases at Imperial College, London, said that while it had yet to be proved safe and effective, it could represent a major advance. Drugs which inhibit this process could be highly useful. The fact that other viruses work in very similar ways offers the prospect of similar molecules to fight infections such as influenza, and RSV, a virus which causes respiratory infections.