HIV's Achilles heel is its 'sweet tooth'

Scientists have found the Achilles heel of HIV, its sweet tooth, blocking of which could halt the growth of the virus.

A new study conducted at the Northwestern Medicine and Vanderbilt University has shown that after the virus invades an activated immune cell, it craves for sugar and other nutrients from the cell to replicate and fuel its wild growth throughout the body.

Scientists have found the switch that turns on the immune cell's abundant sugar and nutrient pipeline, and blocked it with an experimental compound, thereby, starving HIV to death. The virus was unable to replicate in human cells in vitro.

The discovery may have applications in treating cancer, which also has an immense appetite for sugar and other nutrients in the cell, which it needs to grow and spread.

Corresponding study author Harry Taylor, a research assistant professor at the university, said the compound could be a precursor for something that could be used in the future as part of a cocktail to treat HIV more effectively than at present.

This is believed to be the first time scientists have targeted the virus's ability to pilfer the cell's L'antry to stop its growth.

The study will be published in PLOS Pathogens.