The virus hides inside the host’s immune cells in a “latent” state and stably maintains its reservoir. When the levels of toxic molecules such as hydrogen peroxide increase in the host’s cells, leading to a state of increased oxidative stress, the virus gets “reactivated” and it emerges from hiding and begins replicating again.
Made from vanadium pentoxide nanosheets, the new artificial “nanozymes” developed by the IISc researchers work by mimicking a natural enzyme called glutathione peroxidase that helps reduce oxidative stress levels in the host’s cells, which is required to keep the virus in check, an IISc release said.