Czech scientists discover possible means of stopping spread of HIV virus
A recent discovery by Czech scientists promises to provide a cure for one of deadliest killers of the present day – AIDS. Working together with a team from the university in Heidelberg in Germany, they discovered a means which should prevent the HIV virus from spreading. Radio Prague talked to the head of the Czech research team, Pavlína Řezáčová, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, and asked her to explain the new finding and how soon it could be put into use.
“What we have now in our hands is a very special compound, and when I say special, I mean special in its structure. Its three-dimensional structure is unique, and the compound is composed of carbon, boron and cobalt atoms. We found out that this compound can bind to a viral protein from HIV. By its binding to the protein, the compound blocks its function. And since this function is crucial to the viral life cycle, it stops the virus from proceeding its life cycle and prevents its further development.”
That sounds like wonderful news for the whole world really – when do you think this might be actually put into use in the treatment of AIDS?
“Well, you’re right, this is good news, but there is so much news like this every year from various groups around the world. We all try to find new compounds that would eventually become drugs. However, the path from a compound as a result of basic research to a pill you can buy in the pharmacy and can be given to patients – the path is very long and very difficult and not all compounds make it. It usually takes more than 10 years and it costs billions of dollars. At this stage, we need pharmaceutical companies to step into the process and develop the drug. As I said, I cannot really predict whether this particular compound will eventually become a drug but we are really happy because we made the first step and we know which direction to go, and we will for sure work on it in the future.”
Given the potential significance of the discovery, do you get calls from pharmaceutical companies these days asking for cooperation? I suppose that if proven effective and if actually put into practice, this would be a major breakthrough?
“All this attention we are getting now stems from a scientific paper we published about a month ago, but we had published other papers on similar compounds. When pharmaceutical companies make decisions, I guess it’s not an issue of one of two days after the news is released. It’s a matter of time, and we do hope that some of these companies will get interested in the compounds.”
