Dear Immunetters
Here is another problem that is worth discussing. Late last year Dr
Hovanessian from Pateur Institute claimed that he had found the HIV
coreceptor.However the HIV research community was extremely quick in crashing
his idea.He claimed that CD-26 is also a cell surface protein that is
responsible for HIV entry.I am a little confused about this. One evidence
that was mentioned by Hovanssian was that potent inhibitors of CD-26
enzymatic activity could also block HIV infection.The second line of evidence
were from transfection experiments taht showed that mouse cells that could not
normally be infected by HIV could be infected when both CD4 and CD 26 are
present and not each by themselves. The scientific community criticized this
experiment saying that he can't be sure that the virus that he sees was
replicated inside the cell or just the virus that was put in cell culture.
Hovanessian disagrees because he used a strain that had a high replication
rate which is easier to detect in a short time.
What I have a problem with are the cells that can't be infected unless
both of thses receptors are present. We all know that cells that lack CD4
receptors can be infected by HIV. Thus the notion of Co-receptor is
illogical in this respect.I don't dicard the importance of CD 26 but as a
receptor, I am not sure that I can accept at this time. I was wondering also
if CD-26 is a ubiquitous protein.
Hopefully we can start some discussions on this.
Cheers
Shahram _/\_
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