Topic: Blood 'may provide new HIV drug'

[Nemesis]

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They found fragments of the key molecule, which they call virus-inhibitory peptide (VIRIP), are relatively abundant.

Tweaks to its amino acid components boosted its anti-HIV potency by two orders of magnitude.

Tests also showed that some derivatives of the molecule are highly stable in human blood plasma, and non-toxic even at very high concentrations.

A synthetic version of VIRIP also proved effective at blocking HIV, excluding the possibility that some other factor was responsible.

VIRIP targets a sugar molecule which HIV uses to infect a host cell.

If the technique does in fact work on HIV then variations should be possible on other viruses.