Write a short note on HIV endogenisation.

Scientists find mechanism for spontaneous

HIV cure
As many as 1,482 French scientists on Tuesday unveiled the genetic mechanism by which they
believe two men were spontaneously cured of HIV, and said the discovery may offer a new
strategy in the fight against AIDS.
In both asymptomatic men, the AIDS-causing virus was inactivated due to an altered HIV gene
coding integrated into human cells, they wrote in the journal Clinical Microbiology and
Infection.
This, in turn, was likely due to stimulation of an enzyme that may in future be targeted for drug
treatment to induce the same response, they said.
"This finding represents an avenue for a cure," study co-author Didier Raoult of the French
Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) told AFP.
Neither of the men, one diagnosed HIV positive 30 years ago and the other in 2011, have ever
been ill, and the AIDS-causing virus cannot be detected with routine tests of their blood.
In both, the virus was unable to replicate due to DNA coding changes that the researchers
proposed were the result of a spontaneous evolution between humans and the virus that is called
"endogenisation".
"We propose that HIV cure may occur through HIV endogenisation in humans," they wrote.
The teams said they did not believe the two patients were unique or that the phenomenon was
new.AFP

Answers1. HIV (AIDS virus) replicates itself by invading human CD4 immune cells, which it
reprogrammes to become virus factories, thus affecting the individual's immune system.
However, A rare group of peoplefewer than one percent of those infected with HIVare
naturally able to rein in viral replication and keep the virus at clinically undetectable levels i.e.
effectively preventing the deadly virus to attack their immune system.
According to research work of a team of French scientists, this could be attributed to genetic
evolution between human and HIV DNA involving mutation of HIV DNA by a common enzyme
APOBEC. This process is termed as "HIV endogenisation".

The study provides a hope for cure of AIDS based on targeted HIV endogenisation.
2. Endogenisation means to assimilate or integrate a new things into a already existing entity to
become its own part. HIV endogenisation is the process in which the virus gets integrated into
human DNA without causing damage by active proliferation.
HIV virus attacks CD 4 immune cells, integrates with DNA and transforms it into viral
replication factory. These viruses then infect other CD 4 cells to deplete immune response.
In less than 1 % persons the virus gets integrated as usual but its genetic code is altered and so it
does not replicate. The virus becomes a part of host DNA without causing damage or
endogenises. This may be due to altered form of a gene APOBEC leading to altered protein
formation which regulates the process.
This may provide a new window for treatment in contrast to the present strategies which aim at
elimination of virus from host cells.
Some Australian marsupial Koala have integrated AIDS-like virus into their genes, neutralized it,
and were passing resistance on to their offspring.
The challenge is to identify the protein causing this inability on virus and to further the
technology towards an effective cure if not elimination of virus.