HIV Mutates to Death With New Drug

Feb. 9, 2009 -- HIV is notorious for its ability to mutate and evade drugs designed to destroy it. Now scientists are testing a new drug that actually speeds up that rate of change in the hope that the deadly virus will mutate itself to death.

"The HIV virus is so dependent on mutation that it really lives on the edge of existence," said John Reno, Chief Operating Officer for Koronis Pharmaceuticals, the company developing a drug called KP-1461. "But we figured that if we could increase this mutation rate, [HIV] might finally fall off that edge."

KP-1461 is a mutagen, meaning it encourages mutation, and has been in development for several years by the scientists at Koronis Pharmaceuticals.

When any cell or virus reproduces, there are inevitable mistakes, or mutations, as the four building blocks of DNA pair together into a double helix. Usually, the base adenine pairs up with the base thymine, and one called guanine pairs with cytosine.

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KP-1461 looks like both thymine and cytosine, and will occasionally replace one of the normal bases in DNA, causing more errors.

"It really mucks up the genetic information inside the viral DNA," said Reno.

Disrupting HIV's replication doesn't directly destroy the virus, however, at least not immediately. It's the build-up of genetic mistakes that finally destroys it.