NIAID Grant Awarded To Buffalo University For HIV/AIDS Research

Pimped-up T-cells seek out and destroy HIV


November 2008

Researchers have harnessed evolution to create souped-up immune cells able to recognise HIV far better than the regular "killer" T-cells our body produces.

The pimped up T-cell boasts a molecular receptor evolved in the lab to give the body the edge against a virus that has so far flummoxed our immune systems.

"When the body gets infected with HIV, the immune system doesn't know what the virus is going to do - but we do," says Andrew Sewell, an immunologist at Cardiff University, UK, who led the study.

One reason HIV has been able to skirt our immune systems, drugs and vaccines is the virus's chameleon-like behaviour - thanks to a genome that mutates with ease, HIV can quickly change guise to evade an attack.

But some parts of HIV are so vital to its functioning that changes result in dead or severely compromised viruses. Sewell's team targeted a part of one such protein, which holds the virus together.

The virus normally hides this protein from our immune system. But when HIV infects cells, small bits of this protein get trapped on the surface, warning the immune system of the danger that lurks inside.

The problem is that the killer T-cells our bodies produce do a mediocre job of recognizing SL9, Sewell says. So his team designed super T-cells that could recognize a portion of the protein called SL9, and then destroy the infected cell - thus preventing the virus from spreading.


Read the full story: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15156-p...?feedId=online-news_rss20

http://www.thelocal.se/16862/20090112/

HIV infection risk dependent on blood type: Swedish researchers
Published: 12 Jan 09 14:24 CET

The risk of being infected by HIV may be determined by the presence of a molecule in a person’s blood cells, according to a discovery made by Swedish scientists working as part of an international research team.

Individuals with high levels of the molecule, of the carbohydrate-based blood group known as Pk, were found to exhibit a much greater natural resistance to HIV infection, while those lacking the molecule were more easily infected by the virus which causes AIDS.

“We found dramatic difference. If you don’t have the molecule, it can be up to 1000 times easier to become infected by HIV. Those who have high levels of the molecule are more or less resistant [to the virus],” said Martin L. Olsson, a doctor at Lund University’s Faculty of Medicine, to the TT news agency.

There are many more ways of grouping blood in addition to the well-know ABO and Rhesus systems.

While one's Pk-level can be used as a way to classify one's blood-type, the grouping isn’t used routinely today.

Pk-levels vary from person to person, which may explain in part why susceptibility to HIV infection varies so much within the population.

Approximately one in every million people is thought to have high enough Pk-levels to be considered resistant to the HIV virus.

ABC News Examines Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis For HIV Prevention

Possible HIV eradication ?

From "The Journal of Medical Virology" - January 2009

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19031451

" .. After less than 18 weekly administrations of 100 ng GcMAF for nonanemic patients, they exhibited low serum Nagalase activities equivalent to healthy controls, indicating eradication of HIV-infection, which was also confirmed by no infectious center formation by provirus inducing agent-treated patient PBMCs. No recurrence occurred and their healthy CD + cell counts were maintained for 7 years. "