Posts tagged HIV cure
Research Shows Why HIV Progresses Faster in Some
9 years ago
A study was performed to determine why HIV is able to evade the efforts of current HIV treatments and persist in the body. This study will lead to improved HIV prevention. Let’s look at a breakdown of the HIV genetic code and what researchers found which may eventually lead to better treatments.
Researchers understand the way HIV spreads within the body. In order for HIV to enter a host cell, there is a sort of viral envelope. This envelope contains two glycoprotein molecules that have been named gp41 and gp120. The gp120 molecule has been further studied and broken down into sections that have been labelled with either a C or a V and the numbers 1 through 5.
In turn, this genetic code tells the virus to use the R5 receptor to enter a CD4 immune cell. This entry point is the focus of most HIV drugs. However, in about half of patients the virus will avoid using the R5 entry point and switch to the X4 receptor. This change results in a worsening of the disease and difficulty treating HIV with currently available medications.
Previous research made it seem that the gp120’s V3 region was the part that was solely responsible for this change and progression in how the disease spreads within the body. While the V3 region does clearly play a role, a minute genetic change in the gp120’s C2 region also comes into play. This genetic change, though slight, could prove to be an important discovery for researchers.
Now, it is up to researchers to figure out how to put this knowledge to use in combating HIV’s ability to progress despite treatment. It is hoped that the additional knowledge as to how the disease changes which receptor it focuses on will result in finding ways to predict progression and find a way to develop better means for HIV prevention and treatment.
HIV Vaccine? Antibodies from Pregnant, HIV Positive Mothers
9 years ago
Not every child of HIV positive mothers ends up with the disease. The reasons for this have been hotly debated since it is hoped that the mechanism could be duplicated as some form of HIV vaccine. At first, a certain antibody response was considered a possible way that the disease was held at bay. While this was later discounted as being incorrect, new data has researchers once again believing that this antibody response is, in fact, the answer they have been searching for all along.
Each year, about a quarter of a million babies are born with HIV, having been infected during pregnancy by HIV positive mothers. This number, however, is only a small fraction of the babies born to HIV positive mothers during a year. The fact that something prevents most babies from infection certainly caught the attention of researchers who are always on the lookout for an HIV vaccine that can prevent infection.
The Notable Antibody Response
When infants are not infected with HIV due to transmission, the common variable seems to be what is referred to as a V3 neutralizing antibody (due to the fact that it responds to the V3 loop on the HIV envelope). This antibody had been written off by researchers in the past because it does seem to be a strong enough response to prevent transmission. In fact, it has proved ineffective in certain lab tests. So why does it prevent transmission from mother to child?
Additional Factors for HIV Positive Mothers
It is believed one of the factors that makes this immune response more effective in warding off transmission from mother to child lies in the effectiveness of the mother’s antibodies because they can neutralize HIV infection. Obviously, testing will now continue to determine if experimental vaccines can be boosted by this V3 neutralizing antibody. While every child is not kept safe from transmission by this antibody response, researchers hope to use this as a jumping point, something they can use one day to increase the effectiveness of an HIV vaccine someday.
New HIV Antibody
9 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Therapy
New HIV Antibody: Reveals New HIV Vulnerability
It has recently been discovered that a new HIV antibody, known as 35O22, binds itself to a spot on the HIV cell walls—one that was not previously recognized as a vulnerable location. This viral spike, which is located in an area straddling the proteins gp41 and gp120, is weak to the antibody. Because of this, 35O22 is able to bind to the HIV cell and actually neutralizes several strains of the virus. This new HIV antibody has many researchers cautiously hopeful, as the discovery could turn out to be extremely significant.
Over half of the known HIV strains, roughly 60 percent, are affected by the 35O22 antibody. In laboratory tests, moreover, the antibody actually prevented these strains of HIV from infecting other cells. More good news is that the antibody is very potent, which means only a small amount of the antibody is needed to neutralize the virus. After discovering 35O22, scientists and researchers have identified other 35O22-like antibodies that are common in groups of HIV-infected people. Indeed, their blood contains antibodies that could potentially neutralize most of the known HIV strains. This suggests that a vaccine could elicit 35O22 much easier than other less common bNAbs (Broadly Neutralizing HIV-1 Antibodies) – the grouping of antibodies 35O22 belongs in.
Researchers also report that the strains of HIV that 35O22 neutralizes compliments the strains neutralized by other bNAbs. This means that combining 35O22 with some of the other bNAbs in a vaccine, prevention treatment, or therapy could produce a single solution to the problem of HIV: the complete neutralization of the vast majority of HIV strains found around the globe. This new HIV antibody and the exposure of a new vulnerability in the HIV cell is therefore very significant. In fact, it could mean a potential cure for HIV by way of preventing all known strains of the virus from replicating.
Newest Case of an Apparent HIV Cure
Newest Case of An Apparent HIV Cure: Baby Shows Viral Reemergence
Last year a child in the southern United States known now as the ‘Mississippi Baby,’ received worldwide acclaim. The reason for the acclaim was it was the newest case of an apparent HIV cure, as the baby had had a complete viral remission of HIV. This child, born in 2010, was infected at the time of birth with HIV. The child was diagnosed as HIV positive, and was immediately given a highly concentrated treatment of antiretroviral therapy (ART). At 18 months old, the baby was no longer brought to the doctor for treatments or tests for five months, and when the child returned to the doctors they feared her HIV levels would be very high. Instead, the virus was undetectable. Along with a lack of HIV cells, there were no HIV antibodies present in the body. This seemed to be further “proof” to the scientific community of an apparent HIV ‘cure.’ Moreover, this prompted a worldwide study of intensive ART treatment.
Then, in Milan, Italy, a baby who was born HIV positive in 2009, was also thought to have been ‘cured.’ This baby had received intense ART shortly after the child’s birth and continued for three years. Again, there was no trace of HIV cells or of HIV antibodies in the child’s blood. After several months of these same results, ART treatment was stopped. Unfortunately, two weeks later the HIV tests became positive again, again illustrating that talk of a cure was premature.
In July, 2014 the ‘Mississippi Baby’ also tested positive for HIV. This was a major blow to the research in ART, and to the hope of completely eradicating any traces of HIV in a body. “It felt like a punch to the gut,” said Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
There are two other patients who were once considered cured of HIV, an anonymous patient and Timothy Ray Brown. As they were both treated in Berlin, they have been dubbed the ‘Berlin Patients‘ by many media outlets. But this newest case of an apparent HIV cure is not secure, as the anonymous patient has reverted to being HIV positive. However, this is not a roadblock; it is the start of a new push in research for achieving a true cure for HIV.
Mutating HIV Into Extinction
Mutating HIV into Extinction: One Answer to the Dilemma of HIV
In the late 1990’s a group of scientists and researchers faced with the dilemma of HIV and its resistance to a cure, decided to try to force the virus to over-mutate. The idea was to cause HIV to mutate at a rate much greater than the average HIV cell normally does, thus making the cells weaker and more prone to being eradicated. Essentially, they were attempting to cure people by mutating HIV into extinction. Many thought this approach would ultimately prove fruitless, but they pressed on.
Fast forward to 2011 and we find that, indeed, the group has developed a drug that causes rapid mutation in HIV cells. In the lab the drug forced a mutation explosion such that the HIV cells could no longer produce enough protein to survive. This essentially ‘killed’ the virus (although, technically, viruses are not alive in the first place, which is one of the reasons they are so difficult to eliminate). In clinical trials, however, the mutation was not great enough to cause the test patients’ HIV cells to collapse.
In a new study, released in July in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers discovered how the drug – currently known as KP1212 – was able to cause the HIV cells to mutate beyond their normal rate. Armed with this new knowledge, they are confident that they will be able to strengthen the effects of the drug and eliminate the HIV cells on a permanent basis. If they are successful we are talking about an actual cure for HIV.
HIV cells normally mutate quite frequently due to the way HIV reproduces. HIV makes copies of its genetic material, which is very error-prone and unstable, in a rapid mutation that actually helps the virus cells evade elimination from both the body’s immune system and man-made drugs. If HIV can essentially be forced into overdrive (roughly double the normal mutation rate), it will cause weaknesses that will result in the immediate elimination of HIV. Or, at the very least, cause the virus to become highly susceptible to drug elimination. This kind of forced over-mutation can, and in some cases already does, work for other viruses. For example, this is how Ribavirin works in patients with the hepatitis C virus. Similarly, some of the drugs developed for certain strands of influenza work in the same way. All of this good news suggests that we could be on the road to mutating HIV into extinction.
