PC users enlisted in hunt for new HIV/AIDS drugs Canadian Press TORONTO - A massive project is harnessing the power of tens of thousands of personal computers around the world in a bid to winnow out potential drugs to more effectively fight the global scourge of HIV/AIDS.
A virtual supercomputer grid, created by IBM, will allow individuals and businesses to donate down-time on their personal computers via a secure website. The idle PCs will be used to run millions of computations in the search for chemical compounds that could eventually provide more effective HIV therapies, the company was to announce Monday. "This project was created about a year ago . . . essentially to create a virtual supercomputer devoted specifically to humanitarian purposes," said Stanley Litow, IBM vice-president for corporate community relations. "We've been working over the last year to build the number of PCs that are connected and we've also been working on a first research project, analyzing all the proteins in the human body," Litow told The Canadian Press from New York. "But now we are adding this AIDS project. This is brand new to the grid, and the idea is to take years off of the research that would be required to find a cure for AIDS." The project, dubbed FightAIDS(at)Home, involves virtual testing of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds to see how they react to a particular protein of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Computations use a 3-D modelling technique, which will show whether chemical compound molecules will attach themselves to the much larger HIV protein molecule - and exactly where on its structure, said project leader Dr. Arthur Olson. Olson, a molecular biologist at the non-profit Scripps Research Institute, likened the process of seeking the right fit - called "docking" - to an ant crawling over a potato, looking for a spot it likes and settling on one of the spud's eyes. "The idea is if we can find a compound (that fits) into the business end of one of the proteins that the virus depends upon, we can kind of gum up the works," Olson said from La Jolla, Calif. "We can stop it from functioning and then you have a potential drug to fight the virus." Compounds that dock well would then be tested in Olson's laboratory to see what effect they have on HIV in test-tube and animal research. Promising compounds would be published in open-access scientific journals so that other researchers could retrieve data for their own experiments. "It's like finding a needle in a haystack," Olson conceded. "Most of the trial drugs we're trying to dock don't dock very well at all, so what we're really looking for is the best of the best." The project will also include a search for drug compounds that might work against mutated versions of the virus, which render them increasingly resistant to current drug therapies. "HIV mutates very, very quickly," he said. An estimated 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, which killed more than three million last year alone, says the United Nations agency UNAIDS. An estimated 56,000 Canadians are infected with the virus. Sifting through known chemical compounds without a supercomputer would take an estimated 100 years, said Litow. With IBM's World Community Grid, the initial work to select compounds for drug development should be completed in a year. Joining the grid is as simple as downloading special software from <www.worldcommunitygrid.org> (which works with both Windows-and Linux-based systems) and leaving the PC powered-up and connected to the Internet. The grid program kicks in when the PC isn't in use - whether it's for five minutes, overnight or for several days - and shuts down when the owner returns to the keyboard. "It's actually doing calculations for the AIDS project while you're not using it," Litow said. Currently, more than 100,000 people are donating time on 170,000 personal computers, he noted, but IBM wants to see that number grow. "There are 650 million PCs in the world, so the more people who participate in this project, the more powerful it would be," he said. "It doesn't cost you anything to join World Community Grid. So anybody can become a philanthropist." ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
