HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

A form of ribonucleic acid (RNA) developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the potential to be a new weapon against HIV. The short form of RNA turns off genes vital to the production of proteins HIV uses to enter and infect cells.

RNA is present in most cells, carrying genetic information and operating in the production of proteins. In recent years, scientists have discovered that double stranded RNA can silence genes in a process called RNA interference. The component that accomplishes this, small interfering RNA, or siRNA, was reported just last year.

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The MIT team made two different siRNAs that targeted cell surface proteins essential for HIV to infect a cell. They targeted the parts of the virus that make the protein as well as a regulator protein. "In both cases we were able to show that these small RNAs in cells would inhibit the infection by HIV" in laboratory work, researchers report.

Others cautioned that there have been difficulties in getting similar strategies to work in clinical settings. In lab tests, the RNA reduced, but did not eliminate, HIV, and thus might be useful in addition to current AIDS drugs but cannot replace them as treatment.

Editor's Note: from the AP