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Raymond Schinazi |
The detection of a new mutation in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was a surprise to researcher Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics at Emory and director of the laboratory of biochemical pharmacology based at the Atlanta VA.
Schinazi, who helped to develop three of the most popular drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS, says the discovery of the mutation—which is actually a deletion in one of the key genetic sequences in the virus—could be very important for the treatment of people infected with HIV.
“It’s a nasty new virus that we’ve seen in the laboratory, which no one has ever reported before,” he says. “It shows how diverse this virus is, and that we have identified a particularly dangerous problem before it is discovered in the human population.”
Characterization of these mutations is key in determining potential cross-resistance and in treatment management. This specific mutant virus, which has an S68 deletion in the HIV-1 polymerase enzyme region, demonstrates the emergence of a novel form of drug resistance as well as the correlations between antiviral drugs and mutation patterns. The deletion may prove to be an important variable in multi-drug resistance.
“If you are treating someone with a drug and see the mutation emerging, then you need to change therapy immediately,” Schinazi says.
Killing HIV, of which there are millions of different strains, is especially challenging due to its ability to mutate and adapt. Schinazi uses a “bug” analogy to explain: If you have a room full of roaches and you spray insecticide on them, you kill most of them. But a few don’t die because they are resistant to the insecticide; they could be somewhat debilitated, but still very much alive. The survivors then breed, producing a population of resistant bugs. “They may even thrive,” he says, “since the treatment has killed all their competitors.”
This HIV mutation appears to be a new form of multi-drug resistant virus even though it’s a single deletion, says Schinazi. “This will be bad news if it starts showing up in people. But at least diagnostic laboratories are now aware of this deletion, and will know to look for it.”
“We will need to be able to detect this virus and treat it accordingly, or it could cause havoc,” says Schinazi. His team has discovered some drugs that work well against the mutated virus, even though it is resistant to many of the existing drug therapies. "Emory is very interested in finding business partners so that the role and prevalence of this mutation can be closely monitored and potentially treated," said Todd Sherer Directory of Technology Transfer.
Techid: 07076
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