Two-headed Protein Could Destroy HIV Cells

By Jonathan Springston, Associate Managing Editor, AHC Media

Researchers have created a protein that revives resting immune cells infected with HIV and facilitates their destruction in a laboratory setting, according to a paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

During their tests, researchers found the protein, called VRC07-αCD3, activated and eliminated latently HIV-infected helper T cells drawn from patients on antiretroviral therapy when those cells were incubated with the patients’ deadly T cells. Additionally, a monkey-adapted version of the protein was safe and well-tolerated when provided to monkeys infected with a simian form of HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Infectious Disease Alert has spent particular attention on HIV research of late. The October issue examined intestinal fibrosis and immune reconstitution in patients with HIV. In that study, researchers performed tissue staining on duodenal biopsies in patients naïve to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Intestinal myofibroblast activation was correlated with intestinal fibrotic changes and poor immune reconstitution following cART.

“The observations reported in this paper potentially open the door to other modes of treatment, including intestine-specific modulation of inflammation/fibrosis or microbiome manipulation,” writes Dean Winslow, MD, FACP, FIDSA, clinical professor of Medicine, Division of General Medical Disciplines, Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. “If effective interventions are eventually identified, beneficial effects on both immune reconstitution and amelioration of many of the adverse effects of HIV-associated inflammation (including accelerated vascular disease) can be anticipated.”

The November issue of Infectious Disease Alert examines the effectiveness of dual combination antiretroviral therapy for maintaining HIV virological suppression. Results of the phase 2 LATTE study showed that after 24 weeks of induction triple therapy, maintenance therapy with cabotegravir (a long-acting dolutegravir analogue) and rilpivirine led to virological suppression in 82% of patients.

Be sure to check reliasmedia.com later this week to view this story, along with the entire November issue.