2015年9月28日讯-密歇根州立大学的研究人员发现了一个新型天然防御艾滋病毒感染的蛋白质。
该研究小组的发现发表在最新一期的《生物化学杂志》上，他们发现一种阻止艾滋病病毒复制的蛋白质ERManI。
“在早期的研究中，我们知道该蛋白可以干扰传播HIV-1，但是我们对其发生机制尚不明确。”Yong-HuiZheng说，他是密歇根州立大学微生物学和分子遗传学副教授、该研究的作者之一。“我们现在知道，ERManI是一种关键蛋白质，而且它有潜力作为抗逆转录病毒治疗。”
抗逆转录病毒疗法不是疫苗，他们只是抑制艾滋病毒在体内复制，维持其在一个相对较低的水平。虽然还需要几十年才能以ERManI为基础对HIV-1患者进行治疗，但这些结果为未来的研究包括人类细胞和之后的临床测试提供了一个非常重要的方法。
接下来的步骤将是测试艾滋病毒抗性是否可以通过增加ERManI水平得到提升，Zheng说，他是从事该研究的哈尔滨兽医研究所、中国农业科学院和乔治亚大学的科学家。
大多数病毒有病毒外裹层，或者保护膜，它们组成宿主病原体的类似构件进行感染宿主。病毒外裹层的表面有病毒糖蛋白，具有服务的作用，它引导病毒到达结合位点，使其感染扩散在分子水平上。它们起一个关键作用让病毒进入宿主开始蔓延。
Zheng的实验室首次表明HIV-1包膜糖蛋白的生物合成可以特异性的被ERManI抑制，ERManI是一个宿主酶可以添加糖到蛋白质中。通过靶向识别ERManI可以减缓HIV-1的传播。
在美国超过120万人感染了艾滋病。2014年在中国，医生诊断出了104，000例新病例的艾滋病患者。感染的数量持续上升，尽管整体感染的国家仍是一个低感染率。
目前还没有治愈HIV-1的方法，一旦病人感染了它他们的一生就会伴随该病毒。虽然有抗逆转录病毒疗法目前可用，但这只能延长生命，虽然效果比较明显，但这种药物不能治愈这种疾病。目前的药物治疗必须持续一生，而且该药导致副作用和许多其他问题的产生，Zheng说。
“我们看到了一种治疗这种疾病该病的方法，该方法可以帮助身体保护自己。”他说。“这就是为什么我们继续推动我们的研究，这种方法比较缓慢，因为找到一个治疗方法将需要数年时间。在全球范围内，我们将致力于对抗这种疾病，这样的工作是非常重要的。”
Researchers at Michigan State University were part of a team to discover a new natural defense against HIV infection. The team's discovery, featured in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, focuses on ERManI, a protein that prevents the HIV virus from replicating. "In earlier studies, we knew that we could interfere with the spread of HIV-1, but we couldn't identify the mechanism that was stopping the process," said Yong-Hui Zheng, MSU associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and co-author of the study. "We now know that ERManI is an essential key, and that it has the potential as a antiretroviral treatment." Antiretroviral treatments are not vaccines; they simply keep HIV in check in low levels in the body. While it could be decades before an ERManI-based treatment can be prescribed for HIV-1 patients, these results provide a strong path for future research involving human cells, and later, clinical tests. The next steps will be to test if HIV resistance can be promoted by increasing ERManI levels, said Zheng, who worked on the study with scientists from the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the University of Georgia. Most viruses have viral envelopes, or protective skins, that comprise similar building blocks of the host the pathogens are trying to infect. On the surface of the envelope, there are viral glycoproteins, known as Env spikes, which act as valets, leading viruses to binding sites that allow infections to spread at the molecular level. They serve as a key of sorts that gives viruses entry into the host to begin spreading. Zheng's lab was the first to show that HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein biosynthesis can be specifically inhibited by ERManI, which is a host enzyme to add sugars to proteins. By identifying ERManI as the target that slows the spread of HIV-1, the team has revealed a target in which future natural therapies can be developed. More than 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV. In China, doctors diagnosed 104,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS in 2014. The number of infections is rising, though overall the country still has a low rate of infection. Currently, there is no cure for HIV-1; once patients have it, they have it for life. While there are antiretroviral therapies available, they can only prolong life, albeit dramatically, but they cannot cure the disease. Current drug treatments have to be taken for a lifetime, which causes side effects and many other issues, Zheng said. "We see a way to treat this disease by helping the body protect itself," he said. "That's why we continue to move our research forward, seemingly slowly at times, because finding a cure will take years. We feel that's it's important enough, on a world-wide scale, to dedicate our work to fighting this disease."