In recognition of the amazing advances in clinical and basic research on AIDS, the editors of Science chose new weapon against HIV as the discovery of the year for 1996. price, an annual event welcomes new drugs and a new understanding of how the virus infects cells - advances that bring hope people infected with HIV after years of stalemate in the war against AIDS.
an article describing the context of the award notes that these developments started last December, when the first of a new class of drugs, protease inhibitors, came on the market. protease inhibitors stuck the active site of a key enzyme of HIV and, when taken in combination with AZT or other drugs can reduce the virus to undetectable levels in the blood. These cocktails of powerful drugs are no miracle solution, and only a fraction of HIV-positive people can afford to take, but they block the virus to an unsuspected degree ago few years.
In basic research realm, science notes that this year the researchers identified HIV long sought factors. They proved to be of chemokines, small molecules to polypeptides that are part of the arsenal of natural arms of the immune system. In a series of reports throughout the years, researchers have found that, to enter a cell, HIV must first bind to a cell surface receptor which normally receives chemokines, and the virus can not not infect people born with defective chemokine receptor. This idea opens the door to new treatments and vaccines perhaps.
Science also honored nine stages of research with potential benefits to society as a finalist for discovery of the year. They include research on the origins of life, which ignited the imagination of the public with evidence of possible past life on Mars; new types of lasers that could one day make better CD-ROM; and decoding programs cellular self-destruction, which may have implications for research in diseases such as cancer and stroke.
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