HIV

More than 2 million people got infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2015, being sexual transmission the main channel of infection. Researchers from the Infections of the Respiratory Tract and in Immunocompromised Patients group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Daniel Podzamczer, have evaluated the speed at which a new antiretroviral drug, Dolutegravir, is able to reduce the viral load in semen, an area of the body considered to be a reservoir of the virus and where access for drugs is more difficult. The results, published in Journal of Infectious Diseases, show the potential of these new treatments to reduce the chances of sexual transmission of the virus.

Discovery of a novel, advanced technique to identify the rare cells where human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) hides in patients taking antiretroviral therapy (ART). This is an important step forward in the search for a HIV/AIDS cure.

 A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that "holes" in HIV's defensive sugar shield could be important in designing an HIV vaccine.

People living with HIV who naturally produce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) that may help suppress the virus have different immunological profiles than people who do not, researchers report. While bNAbs cannot completely clear HIV infections in people who have already acquired the virus, many scientists believe a successful preventive HIV vaccine must induce bNAbs. The new findings indicate that bNAb production may be associated with specific variations in individual immune functions that may be triggered by unchecked HIV infection. Defining how to safely replicate these attributes in HIV-uninfected vaccine recipients may lead to better designed experimental vaccines to protect against HIV. The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. 

CytoDyn Inc. announces that it has submitted to the U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) an application for orphan drug designation for the use of PRO 140 (humanized monoclonal antibody to CCR5) in the pretreatment of HIV Type-1 (HIV-1) infection in treatment-naïve adults while they are waiting for drug resistance assay results to construct a subsequent Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) regimen.  The generation of these assay results typically takes approximately two weeks.

For HIV-infected mothers whose immune system is in good health, taking a three-drug antiretroviral regimen during breastfeeding essentially eliminates HIV transmission by breast milk to their infants, according to results from a large clinical trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and India

Biologists and mathematicians from MIPT, Stony Brook University and other scientific research centres have taught a computer to predict the structure of protein complexes in a cell 10 times faster than before. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Using gene editing technology, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have, for the first time, successfully excised a segment of HIV-1 DNA - the virus responsible for AIDS - from the genomes of living animals. The breakthrough, described online this month in the journal Gene Therapy, is a critical step in the development of a potentially curative strategy for HIV infection.