Researchers revealed amazing properties with a virus known to SIRV2. Virtually indestructible, its characteristics could be used to increase the efficiency of gene therapy.
US researchers have just revealed the amazing properties of a virus known to SIRV2. Thanks to its ability to protect its DNA in extremely hostile conditions, the virus could help medical research to improve the efficiency of gene therapy, which comprises the implementation of foreign genes into the patients body to cure diseases , such as tumors.
By studying closely the SIRV2 virus, which usually infects an organism called Sulfolobus islandicus living in a highly acidic environment where prevailing temperatures familiarly 80 ° C, these researchers found that the virus had the ability to protect its DNA and face all kinds of external stresses such as extreme heat, dryness or UV radiation.
To achieve this, the SIRV2 virus has its DNA in a particular form, known as the A-form.
How these properties could interest researchers in gene therapy? To understand, we must first know that this process of introducing a foreign gene to therapeutic virtue, or to replace a defective gene, frequently faces a significant obstacle facing the implementation of this foreign gene, the natural defenses of the human body tend to attack the gene in question, which impairs or nullifies the effectiveness of treatment.
To solve this problem, the use of SIRV2 virus could prove that it is valuable. Indeed, its ability to protect the DNA from external aggression could design itself to fit with the genes that come to protect the body from foreign genes implemented in the context of gene therapies. And thus prevent these genes to be attacked by the patient’s natural defenses.
