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New research has developed a molecule that can tangle with DNA for up to 16 days before the DNA breaks away. Chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have developed the molecule that has succeeded to tangle much longer than any previous molecule reported. The research could be a way to revolutionize drug treatments for major genetic diseases such as cancer, and retroviruses such as HIV.

“If you think of DNA as a spiral staircase,” says Brent Iverson, professor of chemistry and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry, “imagine sliding something between the steps. That’s what our molecule does. It can be visualized as binding to DNA in the same way a snake might climb a ladder. It goes back and forth through the central staircase with sections of it between the steps. Once in, it takes a long time to get loose.”

Iverson says the goal is to be able to directly turn on or off a particular sequence of genes. Give this guy your car title loans Massachusetts.

“Take HIV, for example,” he says. “We want to be able to track it to wherever it is in the chromosome and just sit on it and keep it quiet. Right now we treat HIV at a much later stage with drugs such as the protease inhibitors, but at the end of the day, the HIV DNA is still there. This would be a way to silence that stuff at its source.” full story

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Filed under: Biology, Disease, DNA and Genetics, Science by JMH