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The ability of the synthetic compound known as “PD 404,182” to break apart the AIDS-causing virus before it can infect cells was discovered by Zhilei Chen, assistant professor in the university’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, and her team of researchers. Their findings appear in the November online edition of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
“This is a virucidal small-molecule compound, meaning that it has the ability to kill a virus; in this case that virus is HIV,” Chen says. “Basically, it acts by breaking the virus open. We found that when HIV comes in contact with this compound, it breaks open and loses its genetic material. In a sense, the virus ‘dissolves,’ and its RNA becomes exposed. Since RNA is pretty unstable, once it is exposed it’s gone very quickly and the virus is rendered non-infectious.”
