Novel protein in St. John's Wort found to suppress HIV-1 gene expression

[emad]

Novel protein in St. John's Wort found to suppress HIV-1 gene expression
Category: Neurology/Neuroscience News
Article Date: 25 Oct 2005





A novel protein, p27SJ, extracted from a callus culture of the St. John's wort plant (Hypericum perforatum) suppresses HIV-1 expression and inhibits its replication, according to researchers at Temple University School of Medicine's department of neuroscience and Center for Neurovirology (CNV).

Their findings, "p27SJ, a novel protein in St. John's wort, that suppresses expression of HIV-1 genome," will be published online in the Oct. 27 issue of Gene Therapy (http://www.nature.com/gt).

Kamel Khalili, Ph.D., director of CNV (temple.edu/cnvcb), professor and acting chair of Temple's department of neuroscience, and the study's lead author, said the researchers were originally examining plant extracts from St. John's wort cultured in the laboratory to see if they had any effect on cell growth or the behavior of brain cells in vitro.

"During the course of that study, we also looked to see whether these plant extracts that we had isolated from the callus culture had any anti-viral activity," said Khalili. "We soon discovered that the plant extract inhibited HIV-1 gene expression and replication in infected cells."

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=32550#

[rodeodance]

1. careful--this protein has not (yet) been discovered in dietary forms.

.......Khalili strongly emphasized that the researchers do not know if the p27SJ protein they discovered is present in the St. John's wort preparations sold as a dietary supplement, and therefore, those tablets should not be considered as a treatment for patients infected with HIV-1.

"We don't know yet how we have to deliver the protein to cells infected with HIV-1," he said. "Even if the protein were present in the tablets, we don't know how much might be present and whether the protein would be effective when ingested."

The study, which was partially funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health, was done in collaboration with Yerevan State University in Armenia. Khalili's co-investigators included Nune Darbinian-Sarkissian, Armine Darbinyan, Jessica Otte, Sujatha Radhakrishnan, Bassel E. Sawaya, Alla Arzumanyan, Galina Chipitsyna, Jay Rappaport and Shoreh Amini from Temple's CNV, and Yuri Popov, an internationally respected plant biologist from Yerevan State University.

[xchrom]

3. i would have hoped that was obvious.

but i should know better.

[xchrom]

2. cool!

easily available and cheap -- well until the pharms get their hands on it.

[emad]

4. Pharms have so far done a hatchet job on St John's Wort saying

it screws up the liver and may cause damage to women's hormonal cycles.

A volte-face by the big boys is not inconceivable if the HIV- battling connection proves good.

[Ian David]

5. It's called "research." It's what SCIENCE does. n/t