It is a discovery that could revolutionize the fight against AIDS. The French startup Diaccurate, specialized in biotech, and hosted at the Pasteur Institute, has managed to identify the enzyme that attacks the immune system of patients.
Since the discovery of the virus and despite decades of research, scientists have never understood the mechanism leading to the neutralization of the immune system of people with AIDS.
According to the French team, therefore, a digestive enzyme plays the role of intermediary. This is present in each of us. This would cooperate with a fragment of the HIV virus, to attack white blood cells. A mechanism which could also be involved in other pathologies, in particular certain cancers.
An antibody developed
"This means that there is a new therapeutic target. If we neutralize this enzyme, we must be able to have a huge stimulation of the immune system and thus facilitate the proper functioning of the human organism, ”explains Jacques Thèze, who led the research team to France Info.
Diaccurate has already developed an antibody to neutralize the infected enzyme. Unlike the treatments developed so far, which mainly attacked the virus, this new approach would therefore stimulate the immune system.
However, the treatment will not be available until several years of clinical trials. These should first focus on cancer.
