Current HIV Research - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2003

New insights into the physiological cell death program in mammalian cells have further confounded the central issue of T lymphocyte destruction during HIV infection. Although infected and uninfected cells die following infection, recent evidence indicates that infected and uninfected cells may have unique pathways controlling death. Two widely accepted models for apoptosis have been described, namely the intrinsic and extrin Read More

How HIV replicates and causes destruction of the thymus, and how to restore thymic function, are among the most important questions of HIV-1 pathogenesis and therapy in adult as well as pediatric patients. The thymus appears to function, albeit at reduced levels, throughout the life of adults, to respond to T cell depletion induced by HIV and to be suppressed by HIV. In this review, we summarize recent findings concerni Read More

CD8 CTLs are a major effector for protection against cancer as well as many infectious diseases, including HIV / AIDS [2, 8, 11, 31, 35]. CD8 CTL recognize antigenic peptides in the context of class I MHC. CTL functional avidity has been shown to be an important determinant of in vivo efficacy. CTL that can recognize peptide / MHC only at high antigen density are termed low avidity CTL, while those that can recognize their cogn Read More

NK cells were characterized by their ability to spontaneously kill certain tumor and virus-infected cells. They constitute first line of defense against invading pathogens and usually become activated in viral infections particularly in early phases. Activated NK cells play a crucial role in the induction and amplification of virus-specific immunity by providing IFN-γ and “danger signal”. The functional activities of NK cells are reg Read More

A HIV Vaccine, particularly that based on recombinant proteins and plasmid DNA, is likely to be less reactogenic than traditional vaccines, but also less immunogenic. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of new and improved adjuvants and delivery system for combination with HIV vaccine antigens. Adjuvants can be broadly separated into two classes, based on their principal mechanisms of action; “vaccine Read More

Mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 has become rare in developed countries, with the use of highly active antiretroviral treatment, elective cesarean section, and avoidance of breastfeeding. In the developing world, however, these interventions are unfeasible, and costsaving methods for prevention of vertical transmission are vital. Prevention begins with voluntary counseling and tes Read More

Therapeutic approaches seeking to limit the exposure to antiretroviral drugs while retaining the benefits of continuous therapy have become an active area of investigation in HIV therapy research. Although early attempts to use interruptions of therapy as auto-vaccination strategies have shown little success, much has been discovered in regards to immunological correlates of viral control in acute and chronic infection, vir Read More

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the etiologic agent of AIDS. Following entry into the host cell, the viral RNA is reverse transcribed into DNA and subsequently integrated into the host genome as a chromatin template. Chromatin structure may be responsible for silencing retroviral gene expression. Transcriptional activation occurs after ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes alter chromatin stru Read More

Recent evidence of the evolutionary adaptation of HIV-1 to the specific immune system is reviewed. Longitudinal studies of patients show that a neutralizing antibody (NAb) response specific to autologous virus is detectable within 1-2 months of infection and that viral variants resistant to neutralization arise and spread in the viral population within the subsequent three months, and that this general pattern is repeated. Th Read More