Natural compound may open door to new types of AIDS drugs.(virus-inhibitory peptide)(Brief article)

Researchers recently found a natural blood compound called Virus-Inhibitory Peptide (VIRIP) that blocks the HIV virus before it can enter human immune cells. The study's authors are excited that the chemical also blocked increasingly common HIV strains that do not respond to other drugs. The compound could lead to developing a new drug class that fights HIV at an early stage in the infection process and combines with other drugs to attack AIDS from multiple directions.

After testing hundreds of proteins found in human blood, researchers found evidence that VIRIP can control HIV because it does not allow HIV to "attach a molecular anchor" to a cell. Currently, no other …