HIV and Semen

This Article talks about how scientists have discovered a new protein fragment in semen that gives the HIV virus an advantage. Although scientists were already aware of the fragment amyloid fibril, the discovery of this new fibril helps the efforts in slowing the spread of HIV. Some women use microbicides in prevention of being infected by the HIV virus. These have been failing lately due to it not blocking the virus from interacting to the natural infection-enhancement components of semen. Studies that have been done have shown the way of the positively charged fibril attracting the HIV virus to semen. By removing these fibrils and other charged components we would eliminate the ability of HIV infecting our white blood cells. The hope of this discovery is to hopefully improve microbicides as well as eliminate the virus.