After 20 Years, Scientists Crack HIV Puzzle

After 40,000 failed trials and "painstakingly slow progress," scientists have solved a puzzle that stumped AIDS researchers for more than 20 years—and their findings could help develop more effective HIV drugs. The researchers at Harvard and Imperial College London grew a crystal that for the first time made visible the structure of integrase, the enzyme targeted by many newer HIV drugs, Reuters reports.

Drugs like Merck's Isentress and Gilead Sciences' experimental Elvitegravir work by blocking integrase, but until now scientists haven't been able to see how they do so or how to make them more effective. By testing drugs on the crystals, as researchers did with the Merck and Gilead drugs, scientists will be able to better understand how to stop HIV from developing resistance to them.


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