Video

Traffic Pollution Can Inscreas Your Blood Pressure

A Texas Playground Caters Especially to Special Needs Children

BPA in Plastics May be Linked to Asthma

Communication Is Important When It Comes to Prostate Cancer

The Number of Home Births Has Gone Up

Which American Couples Are More Likely to Stay Together?

Workplace Wellness Can Help Reduce the Risk for Heart Problems

Some Parents May Hasten Death for Terminally Ill Children

Fitness Academics

Secondhand Smoke Increases Risk for Heart Disease in Kids

Toddlers Don't Learn Vocabulary From TV

Despite Worries, Most Parents Vaccinate Their Kids Anyway

Food Allergies Can Be Treated With the Allergen Foods

Signs of Heart Disease Could Be As Early as 3 in Obese Kids

The Number of Women Having Strokes is Rising

Scientists Decode HIV Genome

Posted on 08/05/2009, 16:00
By -- Robert Preidt

Breakthrough finding shows virus carries huge RNA genetic code

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. scientists have decoded the structure of an entire HIV genome, a breakthrough which could improve understanding of how the virus infects humans and could lead to the development of new antiviral drugs.

Like viruses that cause influenza, hepatitis C and polio, HIV carries its genetic information as single-stranded RNA rather than double-stranded DNA. Information encoded in RNA is more complex.

The HIV RNA genome is huge, composed of two strands of almost 10,000 nucleotides each. Previously, scientists had managed to model only small regions of the HIV RNA genome.

In this study, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers used specially developed technology to analyze the architecture of HIV genomes. They found that the RNA structures influence multiple steps in HIV's infection cycle.

"There is so much structure in the HIV RNA genome that it almost certainly plays a previously unappreciated role in the expression of the genetic code," study leader Kevin Weeks, a professor of chemistry, said in a news release.

He and his colleagues said the findings would help unlock additional roles of RNA genomes that are important to the life cycle of HIV and other viruses.

"One approach is to change the RNA sequence and see if the virus notices," co-author Ron Swanstrom, a professor of microbiology and immunology, said in the release. "If it doesn't grow as well when you disrupt the virus with mutations, then you know you've mutated or affected something that was important to the virus."

The study appears in the Aug. 6 issue of the journal Nature.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about HIV/AIDS.

SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, news release, Aug. 5, 2009

More news in HIV & AIDS...

BigHealthTree.com Disclaimer

Bighealthtree.com Does Not Provide Medical Advice. This site, including the above information, is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or health advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or a qualified health or medical professional before starting any new treatment, changing existing treatment, or altering your current exercise and/or diet program. If you think you are having a medical emergency, call 911 (or the emergency services in your area) or your doctor immediately.

Rating: 2.9 / 5 (316 votes)