Protein in semen boosts HIV risk

ULM, Germany, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- German researchers say a protein found in semen dramatically increases the transmission of HIV.

The findings, published in the the journal Cell, suggest a potential new strategy for preventing the spread of AIDS if researchers can find inhibitors that block the process, the journal said Friday in a release.

AIDS researchers in Hanover and Ulm, Germany, found that fragments of prostatic acidic phosphatase isolated from human semen form tiny fibers known as amyloid fibrils. Those fibrils capture HIV particles and help them to penetrate target cells, thereby enhancing the infection rate by up to several orders of magnitude.

"We were not expecting to find an enhancer, and were even more surprised about the strength," Frank Kirchhoff of the University Clinic of Ulm, said in the report. "Most enhancers have maybe a two- or three-fold effect, but here the effect was amazing --more than fifty-fold and, under certain conditions, more than one hundred thousand-fold."

Wolf-Georg Forssmann of VIRO PharmaCeuticals GmbH & Co. KG and Hanover Medical School said the fibrils act like a ferry, picking up the viruses and then bring them to the cell.