TRIM5a is comprised of almost 500 amino acid subunits. The Loyola University group of scientists have identified six separate amino acids which are located in a little-studied region of the protein which are important in the protein’s capacity to inhibit viral infection. In the research, which was conducted on Rhesus monkeys, TRIM5a lost its ability to block HIV-1 infection but it did safeguard against other viral infections. The same procedure was conducted in human cells via cell cultures and again, TRIM5a lost its ability to block HIV-1 infection while protecting against other viruses.
Scientists hope to turn TRIM5a into an effective therapeutic agent. However, the first step is to identify the components in TRIM5a that gives the protein the ability to kill HIV. “Scientists have been trying to develop anti-viral therapies for only about 75 years,” explained Campbell. “Evolution has been playing this game for millions of years, and it has identified a point of intervention that we still know very little about.”
By continuing to advance their research, the Loyola University Health System team of researchers hope to identify combinations of amino acids or a single amino acid, that will enable TRIM5a to destroy HIV. If identified, researchers postulate it may be possible to genetically engineer TRIM5a to make it more effective in humans. The team used Loyola’s wide-field deconvolution microscope to observe how the amino acids they identified altered the behavior of TRIM5a by making it glow via the attachment of fluorescent proteins to TRIM5a. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
