Current HIV Research - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2009

The etiologic agent that causes human AIDS was identified in 1981. Only a few years later Rhesus macaques at the New England Primate Center were observed exhibiting clinical signs representative of AIDS, leading to the isolation and identification of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Since that time, numerous studies have been undertaken utilizing the SIV/monkey model and a range of pathogenic outcomes identified Read More

Worldwide, the AIDS pandemic continues almost relentlessly. Women are now representing the fastest growing group of newly infected HIV-1 infected patients. The risk of mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) of HIV-1 increases proportionally as many of these women are of childbearing age. The screening of pregnant women, the early diagnosis of HIV-1 infection, and the administration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) hav Read More

Natural or experimental infection of the African sooty mangabey (SM) with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) results in chronic high levels of virus replication but is associated with none of the debilitating immunopathology, including the marked CD4 T-cell depletion, persistent cell activation and acquired immunodeficiency, that afflicts nonnatural hosts such as SIV-infected Asian rhesus macaques (RM) and HIV-infec Read More

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) play a key role in antiviral immunity through their immense capacity to produce type I interferons (IFN) and other cytokines and through induction of antigen-specific T cell responses. Several reports have documented decreased numbers and reduced function of pDC in the circulation of HIV patients associated with progression to disease, indicating that pDC are likely to be important in control o Read More

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enters target cells via interaction of the viral glycoprotein with the cellular receptor CD4 and two principal coreceptors, CCR5 (R5 viruses) and CXCR4 (X4 viruses). Most HIV-1 transmissions result in a predominantly R5 virus infection. With time, X4 variants arise and coexist with R5 virus variants in ∼50% of subtype B infected individuals. The underlying basis for virus coreceptor swit Read More

African non human primates are natural hosts of SIV. The infection is generally non-pathogenic despite high steady-state levels of plasma viral RNA that in HIV-1 and SIVmac infections are associated with progression towards AIDS. The viral loads in the gut also are as high as in pathogenic HIV-1/SIVmac infections; but replication levels are lower in peripheral lymph nodes of chronically infected African green monkeys. There is a Read More

An HIV vaccine remains elusive despite the concerted efforts of investigators and clinicians over the past two decades. Animal models are regularly used to obtain new insights on disease pathogenesis and have become invaluable tools in the translation of treatments from basic research laboratories to the clinic. Vaccination of macaques with live, attenuated simian immunodeficiency virus is currently the most effective m Read More

It is generally considered that African nonhuman primates (NHPs) do not progress to AIDS. In the wild, due to either a shorter life span or an insufficient follow-up of the animals, no AIDS cases were described to date. However, in captivity, at least one case of immunodeficiency was reported for each of the currently available models of natural infection (African green monkey, sooty mangabey and mandrill). Furtherm Read More

Chemokines are small chemoattractant cytokines involved in homeostatic and inflammatory immune cell migration. These small proteins have multiple functional properties that extend beyond their most recognized role in controlling cellular migration. The complex immunobiology of chemokines, coupled with the use of subsets of chemokine receptors as HIV-1 and SIV entry co-receptors, suggests that these immuno Read More

While highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens have proven to be effective in controlling active HIV replication, complete recovery of CD4+ T cells does not always occur, even among patients with high level virologic control. Recent advances in understanding the biology of T cell production and homeostasis have created the potential to augment anti-viral therapies with immunotherapies designed to facilitate reco Read More

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) differentially controls viral protein expression at the level of splicing as well as nuclear export of incompletely spliced viral RNA. This process, mediated by the Rev protein, interfaces with cellular components involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation. While a number of reviews have focused on the host proteins (i.e., Crm1, importin-β and nucleoporins) that specifically regul Read More

The HIV-1 Rev protein, which traffics through nucleolus and shuttles between nucleus and cytoplasm, facilitates export of unspliced and singly spliced viral transcripts containing RRE RNA by the CRM1 export pathway. Inhibitions of the various stages of Rev-mediated RNA transport can arrest HIV-1 transcriptional process. The current understanding to the mechanism of Rev function, Rev-RRE interaction, as well as inhibit Read More