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This is what synthetic biology can do. Instead of taking on challenging chemistry routes to produce ever more exotic small molecules [1] which we then bathe an
by toufka 12y ago
This is what synthetic biology can do. Instead of taking on challenging chemistry routes to produce ever more exotic small molecules [1] which we then bathe an entire organism in, in the hopes it rubs against the HIV proteins in a way that disrupts them, synthetic biology intelligently repurposes the machinery already in place in one's body to accomplish a slightly different task. This is a primitive, if seemingly effective example.
Here, a decoy was created. It's the same set or proteins that HIV binds to in order to gain access to human cells. But the proteins are only tiny chunks from the original and are floating around on their own rather than acting as the keys to the cell. Not all that different from redirecting a heat seeking missile with a bunch of flares. But because the 'flares' are actually identical (in part) to the real proteins in a human, were HIV to mutate away from being able to bind to those chunks it too would become less virulent when attacking the real proteins. And if the strategy is effective, it takes less than a week of labwork to design and produce another similar tactic - very much unlike the small molecule variety.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenofovir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenofovir
- thundara 12y agoThere was an even more impressive example of synthetic biology taking on HIV treatment. The design involved re-engineering HIV to excise the retrovirus rather than integrating it into the genomes of infected cells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgEwFVHuqUU#t=24m10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgEwFVHuqUU#t=24m10s
- Pwnguinz 12y ago> were HIV to mutate away from being able to bind to those chunks it too would become less virulent when attacking the real proteins. Forgive my ignorance, but are there any indicators to predict whether a virus will evolve one way or another? What I mean is, once it comes in contact with these mimic proteins, instead of mutating away from binding to these proteins, can it not mutate in such a way that it increases its virility so that it will bind onto more proteins in an effort to combat "false positives"? So it'll become even more virulent in individuals that have not received this treatment, and maintain its current virility in individuals receiving such treatments?
- toufka 12y agoThe mutations themselves are random. Generally it's reasonable to think of mutations as movement across an energetic landscape. And like in physics, nearly anything is possible if you give it enough time/energy. However, if constrained, the shortest path is usually the most likely. Back to your question - is there an indicator to predict whether a virus will evolve towards or away from its effectiveness. Ideally, you'd put such constraints on the virus in other ways (in addition to the above concept/treatment), that it wouldn't have the energy/time to get to that much more complicated state of binding more proteins. Every additional mechanism a virus uses is a significant penalty against something as compact and efficient as a virus. But in the end there is likely no way to make any treatment perfect and unovercomable. Best we can do is defend.