2009
“Neurons can protect themselves against infection with HIV, new research has demonstrated. They owe their hardiness to a protein called FEZ-1, made uniquely by neurons, and which appears to lock out the virus. The finding raises the possibility of new treatments to thwart HIV by using gene therapy or drugs to activate production of the same protein in cells other than neurons – especially the white blood cells most vulnerable to infection.
Mojgan Naghavi of University College Dublin, Ireland, along with her colleagues Juliane Haedicke and Craig Brown, established the protective effects of FEZ-1 by blocking production of the protein in human neurons. When they did this, the neurons became vulnerable to infection. Likewise, they successfully blocked the usual infections in other types of brain cells, such as microglia, by engineering them to manufacture FEZ-1…”
source: newscientist.com
