Young Slovenian synthetic biologists devise a mutation-independent defense against HIV

Team of Slovenian undergraduate students from the University of Ljubljana together with their mentors from the National institute of chemistry of Slovenia (NIC) developed a **new strategy of antiviral defense** that is not breached by viral mutations. Their approach, which the students half-jokingly called »Virotrap« is based on **detecting viral function** rather than specific sequences. HIV-1 virus is one of the most difficult targets for therapy because it hijacks the cells of our immune system and particularly because the virus mutates rapidly, making it drug resistant. Up to 20% of HIV-infected patients host virus that is drug resistant. The current HAART therapy against HIV uses a combination of several different drugs, which decreases the probability of simultaneous development of resistance against different drugs. "AlphaGalileo.org":[ http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=524854]

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