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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2008;299(13):1533.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A newly discovered gene is able to block HIV infection and therefore may in turn prevent the onset of AIDS. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia identified a human gene called TRIM22 that can halt HIV infection in cell culture by preventing assembly of the virus (Barr SD et al. PLoS Pathog. 2008;4[2]:e1000007. 10.1371/journal.ppat.1000007).

The protein expressed from TRIM22 appears to be essential to the normal interferon response that cells use to fight infection. When TRIM22 was overexpressed, HIV replication was inhibited; when TRIM22 expression was reduced, the normal interferon response failed to halt HIV infection. The researchers demonstrated that TRIM22 blocks the intracellular trafficking of the viral structural protein Gag to the surface of the cell.

The investigators are now trying to understand why the TRIM22 gene does not work in individuals . . . [Full Text of this Article]