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Fluorescence Imaging Tracks HIV With Proteins
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Fluorescence Imaging
Teams of scientists from Belgium have turned to fluorescence imaging techniques to learn how proteins interact when they come in contact with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The ability to study the deadly disease up close using custom lens designs allows for future abilities to study other disease and helps with the screening process of drugs to help fight deadly diseases.
According to scientists, understanding how HIV, and other deadly disease reproduce, is crucial in the effort to fighting them. HIV in particular enters the bloodstream, which then attaches itself to individual immune cells and effectively hitches a ride throughout the body programming the cells it comes in contact with. They do this in more than one way but understanding the full capabilities is crucial.
Of course, seeing these actions and their behavior up close and personal gives scientist the edge in learning to fight diseases. Using a single-molecule fluorescence-imaging lens, researches where able to modify an HIV virus that was capable of infecting a cell but not reproducing it. It produced a fluorescent integrase, which under the light of the microscope was both highly visible, and able to be studied in great detail. These new techniques allow scientists to further their understanding of the disease and its capabilities, proving definitive answers as to the way it spreads and grows in the human body.
The great news about this new capability is that the technique can be broadly applied and may be uses to study other viruses and pathogens. Although protein studies and integration has been widely used for some time now, the new fluorescence imaging using custom lens designs helps to further researchers understanding at a quick pace. Future studies will without a doubt involve custom lens and fluorescence techniques to ingrate proteins into other viruses, expanding our understanding and knowledge of these deadly disease by great lengths.