Korean scientist advances HIV fight

A Korean scientist in the United States has developed an epoch-making medicine to prevent HIV from penetrating human cells amid an expectation of a possible conquest of AIDS.

Prof. Peter Kim of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduced the new medicine in his paper published in the Jan. 12 edition of Science magazine of the United States.

The 42-year-old biologist, whose Korean name is Kim Sung-Bae, is drawing worldwide attention by disclosing the human cell infiltration mechanism of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In the paper, Kim said he conducted an experiment with a five-helix, a protein molecule, that he planted in a test tube, and that he found it prevents HIV from infiltrating human cells.

Three years ago, Prof. Kim disclosed the fact that HIV contaminates human cells through amalgamation after penetrating the cell membrane by firing a spear in the shape of a coiled spring on its surface.

This time, the professor designed the five-helix protein molecule that can render the spear useless. The result of the test tube experiment confirmed that the molecule makes the spear powerless by sticking fast to the vulnerable part of the spear.

The existing medicines to cure AIDS kill HIV that have penetrated cells, while Prof. Kim¡¯s protein molecule prevents HIV from infiltrating the cells in the first place.

Therefore, if this molecule is developed into a medicine, it is expected that AIDS patients can survive by preventing HIV from spreading through their entire bodies.

In particular, this molecule is drawing attention from the medical world in that it is effective not only to a specific sort of HIV, but also to its variants.

Pharmaceutical companies have, so far, developed medicines that are effective only on one sort of HIV strain, but they have faced difficulties in development drugs that can kill all the HIV ariants because the viruses mutate quickly and diversely.

Shin Dong-Ho, reporter of Donga Science