Scientists from Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden includes an Indian having laid the foundation for a cure of the deadly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The team has discovered a method to remove virus from the infected cells and not just suppress it to counter the infection that is affecting 34 million patients worldwide.

The Indian representative, Dr Indrani Sarkar, associate scientific manager, Syngene International Ltd., Biocon had participated in this project while she was at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden for her PhD.

The focus of her Ph.D project was to generate the evolved recombinase Tre using directed evolution, and analyse its applicability in anti HIV therapy.

The research achievement is the identification of an enzyme called 'Tre', that attacks the DNA of the HIV virus which removes it out of the infected cell. The discovery had been referred to as a 'proof of principle' study and is applicable to any retroviral infection.

As part of the project under Dr Indrani Sarkar's PhD supervisor Dr Frank Buchholz at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, collaborated with HIV virologists Prof. Joachim Hauber and Ilona Hauber from Heinrich Pette institute in Hamburg to experiment with HIV infected cells. The research programme spanned over four years.

"The enzyme Tre recombinase has been engineered to recognize and recombine specific sequences within the long terminal repeats of an HIV-1 provirus. Tre has been generated using directed evolution and is essentially an evolved recombinase. It is shown to recombine the integrated HIV provirus from infected cells," Dr Indrani Sarkar told Pharmabiz in an email interview.

The innovation of the discovery of her study is also featured in the 'Science' magazine. It is for the first time, that the HIV virus has been directly targeted and shown to be recombined out from genome of infected cells, showing that there is a way of evicting the virus from the genome. Present treatment options suppress the virus to delay the onset of AIDS and increase the life of the infected patients.

There were several challenging experiments undertaken to screen and select the final recombinase. The enzyme, according to Dr Indrani Sarkar, will need efficient and safe means of drug delivery to function without adverse side effects. "The experiments in HIV infected cells showed that this method helped in removing the virus. The ability to recognize the HIV DNA could help future research initiatives lead to the cure of the infection."

"We cannot comment on anything more at this stage because a lot of work needs to be done to confirm if Tre recombinase could combat the HIV virus and provide a treatment option," she added.