Loyola Researches Announce Breakthrough In HIV Study

Researchers at Loyola University Health Systems announced an important breakthrough Aug. 20, one that could lead to a treatment that destroys the HIV virus.

Senior researcher Edward Campbell (photo below) and his colleagues reported that they've identified key components of a protein called TRIM5a that kills the virus in rhesus monkeys. The finding could lead to TRIM5a-based treatments for people that would "knock out" the HIV virus.

The Loyola team started studying TRIM5a after other researchers reported in 2004 that it protects rhesus monkeys from HIV by first latching onto the virus; other TRIM5a proteins then "gang up" on the virus and destroy it, the researchers found.

Humans also carry the protein, but while it protects people from some viruses it does not protect them from HIV. So the Loyola team looked for components of TRIM5a that kill HIV in rhesus monkeys. By doing that, they hope to turn TRIM5a into an effective weapon against HIV in humans.

"Scientists have been trying to develop antiviral therapies for only about 75 years," Campbell said. "Evolution has been playing this game for millions of years, and it has identified a point of intervention that we still know very little about."

TRIM5a consists of almost 500 amino acid sub-units. The Loyola team has identified six that play a critical role in the protein's ability to fight viral infection. When those six amino acids were altered in human cultures, the protein lost its ability to block HIV infection, the researchers said.

The research may also lead to the development of drugs that mimic TRIM5a's actions against HIV. The team uses Loyola's wide-field "deconvolution" microscope to study TRIM5a.

"The motto of our lab is one of Yogi Berra's sayings - 'You can see a lot just by looking,'" Campbell said.

The team's findings are featured in a cover story in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Virology, now available online. In addition to Campbell, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, the co-authors of the study are Jaya Sastri, a Stritch graduate student; Christopher O'Connor, a former post-doctorate researcher at Stritch; Cindy Danielson and Michael McRaven, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; and Patricio Perez and Felipe Diaz-Griffero, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.