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US researchers find two chemicals to fight HIV

Xinhua News Agency

07 Mar 2005

>>LOS ANGELES, Mar 5, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Two chemical compounds may help the immune systems of HIV-infected people fight the disease without invasive gene therapy, US scientists reported Saturday.

The new research, presented at the 2005 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA) AIDS Institute. It demonstrates that the new chemicals activate telomerase, a protein that boosts immune cells' ability to divide, enabling them to continue destroying HIV-infected cells, the researchers said.

"The immune cells that fight HIV naturally produce telomerase during the infection's early phase, but stop once HIV becomes a chronic condition," explained Rita Effros, a professor at UCLA medical school who led the study. "The two compounds switched telomerase back on in the cells."

Earlier research by the UCLA team has showed that inserting the telomerase gene into the immune cells of an HIV-infected person prevented the cells from aging prematurely. The telomerase enabled the immune cells to divide indefinitely, stimulated their production of a viral-fighting molecule and prolonged their power to kill HIV-infected cells.<<