http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/articl...-lead-new-treatments.html

Scientists uncover the secret of the 'elite controllers' who can spontaneously 'cure' HIV - and say it could lead to new treatments

The AIDS-causing virus remained in their immune cells but was inactivated because its genetic code had been altered, the scientists said. The change appeared to be linked to increased activity of a common enzyme named APOBEC, they theorised. The 'apparent spontaneous cure' throws up an intriguing avenue for drug engineers, the team said in a statement. ... The work, published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection, was carried out by scientists at France's Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).

... A rare group of people -- fewer than one percent of those infected -- are naturally able to rein in viral replication and keep the virus at clinically undetectable levels. They are known as 'elite controllers', but the mechanism by which they keep the virus at bay remains a mystery. The French group looked at two such individuals, a 57-year-old man diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, and a 23-year-old diagnosed in 2011, and sequenced their virus genomes. Though they remained infected, standard tests could not detect the virus in their blood. The team found that in both cases, the virus was unable to replicate in immune cells due to mutations in its genetic code.

The researchers suggested spontaneous evolution between humans and the virus, a process called 'endogenisation' that is believed to have neutralised other viruses in humans in the past. A similar process has been witnessed in a population of koalas that has integrated an AIDS-like virus into their genes, neutralised it, and were passing resistance on to their offspring.

'We propose that HIV cure may occur through HIV endogenisation in humans,' the team wrote. 'These findings suggest that without therapeutic and prophylactic strategies, after several decades of HIV/host integrations and millions of deaths, it is likely that a few individuals might have endogenised and neutralised the virus and transmitted it to their progeny,' they added. 'We believe that the persistence of HIV DNA can lead to cure, and protection, from HIV.' The approach hitherto has been the opposite: to try and clear all traces of HIV from human cells and from cell reservoirs where they hide. 'We suggest that persistence of integrated HIV DNA is not a barrier, but on the contrary, may be a prerequisite to HIV cure,' said the study authors. 'We propose a new vision of HIV cure through integration, inactivation and potential endogenisation of a viral genome into the human genome.' ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141120141750.htm

November 20, 2014 - PLOS Genetics

Doctors have long been mystified as to why HIV-1 rapidly sickens some individuals, while in others the virus has difficulties gaining a foothold. ... HIV-1 infection boosts the production of one kind of APOBEC3, APOBEC3H -- suggesting it's a key player in fighting back. ... using an experimental technique known as separation of function mutagenesis, they discovered that different people have different strengths/potencies of APOBEC3H, with some proteins expressed stably and others inherently unstable. The stable variations, the researchers found, were able to successfully limit HIV-1's ability to replicate if the infecting virus had a weak version of Vif -- but not for HIV-1 viruses that had strong Vif. "This work shows that the competition between the virus and the host is still ongoing," Refsland says. "The virus hasn't completely perfected its ability to replicate in humans."

Armed with this clearer picture of the multifaceted interactions between Vif and APOBEC3, Harris says, the next step is to figure out how to stop Vif from disabling the APOBEC3 enzymes. "One could imagine drugs that stop Vif from binding with APOBEC," he said. "This is a bonafide HIV killing pathway, and we just have to devise clever ways to activate it in infected persons. Such an approach could indefinitely suppress virus replication, and even result in curing it."

This is a very interesting news about APOBEC:


"...For the past 30 years the drug industry and the NIH have been opposed to targeting host proteins so that funds and attention could be paid solely to traditional antiretroviral solutions." ... "An abstract entitled '€œDrug Leads that Inhibit Vif and Enable APOBEC3G are Broadly Neutralizing of HIV1 Clades and Drug-resistant Strains' suggests that using Vif directed A3G would destroy HIV and disable it from reproducing and could be used as salvage therapy or to kill off activated reservoirs. This abstract was presented at the XX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014)."

http://www.hivplusmag.com/research/2014/11/06/hide-and-seek

A new HIV strain in some patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive and can develop into AIDS within three years of infection. Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late...

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015/02/14/Agg...1423945549/#ixzz3Rn0XmU4Y

Wow. None of the names and references of the article ring a bell. Maybe Dr.Santiago would want to chime in in this. Interestingly it speaks of a protein, not some engineered compound "our protein has been effective against all strains tested..." and " it might work as part of an unconventional vaccine."