A team led by two bio-pharmaceutical companies found engineered molecules can target and bring together HIV-infected cells, and T-cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune system's response. By doing so, the molecules can induce the killing of HIV-infected cells, and were found to further reduce the levels of detectable virus in the blood samples of HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy.

The so-called 'kick and kill' strategy to eliminate HIV involves making infected cells visible to the immune system, before the T-cells can kill off the virus. Focusing on the 'kill' step of the puzzle, researchers led by Scott Koenig from MacroGenics in Rockville and Thomas Cihlar from Gilead Sciences in Foster City, designed and evaluated so-called Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (DART) molecules. The molecules have two arms. The first binds specifically to a protein in HIV-infected cells, Env, while the second to CD3, a molecule found on T-cells. Rather than target specific T-cells, the DART CD3-binding arm can potentially recruit and activate any kind of killer T-cells, thereby mounting a much broader attack on the HIV-infected cells, expressing the Env protein. In addition, the researchers found that the DART molecules were capable of reducing the level of HIV expression, ex vivo in blood samples from HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy. They said this suggests that DART molecules could kill reservoir cells. ... The study is published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-331...den-reservoirs-virus.html

NIH Scientists Draw Evidence-Based Blueprint for HIV Treatment and Prevention

Trifecta of Key Studies Provide Compelling Data

In a new commentary, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. and colleague Hilary D. Marston, M.D., M.P.H. argue that the results of three large clinical trails definitely prove that the benefits of starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) early in an infection outweigh any theoretical risk. Moreover, they write, the combination of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and prompt initiation of ART could potentially bring about an end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/20...eatmentandPrevention.aspx

Historic HIV Vaccine Clinical Trail: Facebook Live with NIH's Dr. Dieffenbach

In a Facebook Live interview from Cape Town, South Africa earlier this week, we heard NIH's Dr. Carl Dieffenbach about the exciting launch of HVTN 702, a new HIV vaccine clinical trial supported by NIH. The first HIV vaccine efficacy study to launch anywhere in seven years, HVTN 702 is testing whether an experimental vaccine regimen safely prevents HIV infection among South African adults.

https://blog.aids.gov/2016/12/nihs-dr-dieffen...rial-in-south-africa.html

COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY
Novel virtual screening approach

Structure-based drug discovery methods are generally based on predicting the binding affinity of a ligand to a protein. Ruiz-Carmona et al. introduce a novel computational procedure termed dynamic undocking (DUck), which evaluates the structural stability of protein–ligand complexes.

http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v16/n1/full/nrd.2016.272.html

Researchers create weakened HIV virus (suitable for vaccinations) by editing a codon for a natural amino acid which is necessary for HIV replication to make the replication process require a synthetic amino acid instead

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-436...ugh-discovery-switch.html