KU Leuven scientists hope to use one treatment for HIV and an agressive form of leukemia

Scientists at the Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy at KU Leuven have discovered that a protein that plays an important role in the spread of HIV has the same function in the pathogenesis of an aggressive form of leukemia. The researchers hope to slow HIV and leukemia with similar inhibitors in the future.

Proteins in the cells of the human body interact to form a network responsible for the 'control' of the cell. To take over 'control' of the cells, viruses, such as HIV, can effectively manipulate this network by affecting certain nodes in the network of proteins,. A similar phenomenon occurs in the pathogenesis of cancer. Here, too, mutations in certain proteins bring about changes in the nodes of the network. Now it appears that some nodes play a role in both the spread of HIV and the development of cancer.

The protein LEDGF/p75 has already been shown to be an important node for HIV replication. The virus uses this protein to tether itself to the DNA of the cell. The same protein plays a similar role in the development of certain forms of leukemia. These include a very aggressive form of leukemia that commonly occurs in children under the age of 1. Meanwhile, potent inhibitors have been developed which block the interaction between HIV and this protein – and thus also block the tethering of HIV to DNA.

Dr. Jan De Rijck of the Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy under the direction of Professor Zeger Debyser, working with researchers at the University of Basel, has now shown that strategies that were previously used to inhibit HIV also inhibit this aggressive form of leukemia in cells and animal models. The next step will be to develop new drugs against leukemia on the basis of these results.

The research was published in the journal Leukemia.