Insight into HIV's 'on-off' switch shows promise for therapy, understanding cellular decisions

Insight into HIV's 'on-off' switch shows promise for therapy, understanding cellular decisions

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered how a genetic circuit in HIV controls whether the virus turns on or stays dormant, and have succeeded in forcing the virus towards dormancy, a finding that shows promise as an avenue for HIV therapy. Their findings are published in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

Leor S. Weinberger, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego, with Michael L. Simpson of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Roy D. Dar of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, say that their study shows how a developmental decision between HIV’s two “replication fates” is made. The authors were able to measure the level of “noise” or randomness in HIV gene expression and use this noise to probe how HIV decides to replicate or remain dormant.

This method is somewhat like finding a radio station by honing in on regions with the most static. It provides a new tool for probing cellular, as well as viral, regulation, and for understanding how other biological decisions are made, notably how stem cells choose between different developmental fates.

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