US scientists engaged in AIDS related research have announced that they have found the protein which limits the release of the deadly HIV-1 virus. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in human beings. Scientists claim this finding is a major breakthrough in AIDS research, as it could lead to the discovery of new treatments.     

 

It was underscored that maximum human cells include a factor that monitors the release of virus particles, but then not much was known about the identity of this factor. Now calcium modulating cyclophilin ligand or CAML has been identified as the cellular protein that inhibits the release of HIV particles by a combined team from the US-based Vanderbilt University, Emory University and Mayo Medical School. 

 

The lead researcher Paul Spearman of Emory University was quoted in the Nature Medicine journal as saying that this finding is crucial as it establishes CAML as an innate defense mechanism against HIV. It was further reported that CAML works by limiting a very late step in the virus lifecycle, which resulted in the withholding of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) particles on the membrane of the cell.