Slashdot Mirror
Researchers Determine Chemical Structure of HIV Capsid
adeelarshad82 writes "Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have determined the precise chemical structure of the HIV 'capsid,' a protein shell that protects the virus's genetic material and is a key to its virulence. The experiment involved mapping an incredible 64 million atoms to simulate the HIV capsid, pictured here. Interestingly no current HIV drugs target the HIV capsid and researchers believe that understanding the structure of the HIV capsid may hold the key to the development of new and more effective antiretroviral drugs. What makes this whole experiment even more fascinating is the use of Blue Waters, a Cray XK7 supercomputer with 3,000 Nvidia Tesla K20X GPU accelerators."
I guess all those gamers aren't useless after all. You can thank me later for my donations to Nvidia's profits. So they could research and develop this technology.
That there are numerous repeating elements in the capsid. Seems like this would be a perfect target for antibody formation. But obviously, that hasn't worked out. Be interesting to know why.
(Armchair biology is wonderfully simple, isn't it?)
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Oh, sorry, my bad. That was supposed to be sympathetic magic, not homeopathy. Ever since the discovery of phlogiston, I have had hard time trying to keep pace with these modern scientific developments.
Ezekiel 23:20
just like a geodesic dome, thats kind of interesting
Oh, cool, we can kill AIDS with zoning ordinances.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I've wondered along these lines in the past.
It's almost certain that the drug industry isn't deliberately withholding cures. Competition still exists between companies, and thanks to patents any novel cure would print money for the company that controlled it. It's not like they're in danger of running out of diseases to treat if they manage to cure a couple, is it?
But I think you're on to something with the pursuit of profit not being the best driving force for medical innovation. The cost of each dead end in drug research keeps going up as the easy fruit has been plucked already, so do drug companies want to put big money into high risk-reward scenarios? Or, as with Hollywood, would they prefer to tweak a few existing and proven blockbusters, pretend it's a new formula, and put more into advertising?
We've plateaued, perhaps, but the good news is that each new leap in neighboring technologies may lower the cost of research and ultimately of cures. I'm excited about the potential for other drug delivery systems such as artificial viruses or nanotechnology, for example.
Interestingly no current HIV drugs target the HIV capsid and researchers believe that understanding the structure of the HIV capsid may hold the key to the development of new and more effective antiretroviral drugs
Since the "discovery" of the HIV virus in the late 1980's scientists have discovered that the HIV virus has undergone several mutations
Even if there are drugs which can successfully targets the HIV capsid that have been decoded in this experiment, it does not mean that the HIV virus won't mutate again, and change their capsid sequence (or chemical formula) to foil those drugs
But all in all, the effort in sequencing the capsid is indeed a breakthrough, a step forward in understanding the nature of the bug, even if it's one type, amongst the many varieties
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Check out U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 20130053267 and 20120302556 (among others from the same assignee). Capsid structures, like protein structures, can be useful starting points for drug development. Ultimately, however, the goal is to find a substance that will kill the disease without killing the patient. So far, no computer graphics package has replaced the grunt work of medicinal chemistry---methyl, ethyl, butyl, futile.