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Issue No.
15
| April 03, 2009
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AIDSinfo.nih.gov is pleased to provide you with a weekly update of highlights about what has happened in the world of HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research. We hope you find this encapsulated view of HIV/AIDS news useful. |
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Study: Starting HAART Before Immune System Is Compromised Greatly Improves Survival
"Initiating HIV treatment before the patient's immune system is too badly compromised can dramatically improve survival, a new study finds.
"'The optimal time to initiate therapy for asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals has been unclear,' explained lead researcher Dr. Mari M. Kitahata, of the University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, in Seattle.
"But in the new study, the Seattle group found that, compared with patients who started treatment early, patients who delayed therapy boosted their odds of dying by either 69 percent or 94 percent, depending on how low the patient's CD4 blood cell count was."
Study: HIV-Inhibiting Protein Giffithsin Able to Be Grown in Large Amounts in Relative of Tobacco Plant
"[M]ost promising [antiretroviral] ARV entry inhibitors are biologicals, which are costly to manufacture and deliver to resource-poor areas where effective microbicides are urgently needed. Here, we report a manufacturing breakthrough for griffithsin (GRFT), one of the most potent HIV entry inhibitors. This red algal protein was produced in multigram quantities after extraction from Nicotiana benthamiana plants transduced with a tobacco mosaic virus vector expressing GRFT. Plant-produced GRFT (GRFT-P) was shown as active against HIV at picomolar concentrations, directly virucidal via binding to HIV envelope glycoproteins, and capable of blocking cell-to-cell HIV transmission."
Study: Researchers Identify Protein that Activates Latently HIV-Infected T Cells Without Global T Cell Activation
"HIV-1 latency in resting CD4(+) T cells represents a major barrier to virus eradication in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Eliminating the latent HIV-1 reservoir may require the reactivation of viral gene expression in latently infected cells. Most approaches for reactivating latent HIV-1 require nonspecific T cell activation, which has potential toxicity. ... DeltaVII-Ets-1 activated HIV-1 transcription through 2 conserved regions in the LTR, and reactivated latent HIV-1 in cells from patients on HAART without causing significant T cell activation. Our results highlight the therapeutic potential of cellular factors for the reactivation of latent HIV-1 and provide an efficient approach for their identification."
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