MINNEAPOLIS, June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers reported a human protein that mutates the HIV virus could prevent infection and halt the spread of the disease in the body.
Scientists at the University of Minnesota said the new protein, APOBEC3F, can directly mutate HIV and act as retroviral restrictor to increase HIV resistance in some individuals.
The HIV virus uses human cellular material to assemble new viral particles and produces a protein called viral infectivity factor that aims to destroy any retroviral restrictors that attempt to mutate it.
The research team said APOBEC proteins, specifically APOBEC3F, leave a more prominent mutational signature in the virus DNA, suggesting it is less vulnerable to HIV counter-defenses.
When HIV particles enter a cell, the virus RNA must be copied into DNA to make its way into the cell's genome. During this transformation, it is thought APOBEC proteins mutate the DNA base cytosine into another base called uracil.
As the DNA is repeatedly copied, the mutations that come along with it potentially destroy 25 percent of the cytosine bases, crippling the HIV virus's ability to continue infection.
