Category: Latency reversing agents
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The primary barrier to curing HIV infection is the persistence of the virus in a latent form in long-lived resting memory CD4 T cells. The number of latently infected resting memory CD4 T cells in a typical individual on ART is estimated to be in the range of 1-60 million. An important strand of HIV…
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Results from a phase I trial of the candidate latency reversing agent panobinostat were published last year in The Lancet HIV (see blog post from November 2014). The paper notes that in an exploratory analysis, a subset of four (out of a total of 15) participants experienced a significant decline in cell-associated HIV DNA levels of…
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Last week saw a slew of news emerge from the IAS 2015 conference and related satellite meetings in Vancouver. Below are links to some presentations of possible interest and information on how to find materials online. 2015 Towards an HIV Cure Symposium On July 18 & 19, immediately preceding the main conference, the fifth IAS Towards…
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At CROI last year, Gregory Laird presented results from a laboratory study that tested the activity of several candidate HIV latency-reversing agents (LRAs) on latently infected CD4 T cells isolated from HIV-positive individuals on ART. The results were disappointing: only one LRA showed a very modest effect on HIV gene expression and none induced significant…
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The cytokine interleukin-15 (IL-15) can exert a range of effects on the immune system, but is particularly important for promoting the proliferation and function of natural killer (NK) cells and CD8 T cells. Some observational studies in HIV have suggested salutary effects of higher IL-15 levels, in one case finding an association with delayed viral load…
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The 2015 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) took place in Seattle from February 23rd to the 26th. The major news that emerged from the meeting was the extremely high degree of protection from HIV infection obtained with pre-exposure prophylaxis in two studies, PROUD and IPERGAY. On the vaccine and cure fronts nothing was…
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Results from the second clinical trial to test the HDAC inhibitor vorinostat as a latency-reversing agent, first presented at CROI 2013, have now been published in the open access journal PLoS Pathogens. The study design differed from the first trial, involving a longer 14-day dosing period. The results are broadly consistent, with a significant increase in…
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In the spring of 2013, a wildly inaccurate Daily Telegraph story about HIV cure research claiming “there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV within months” was amplified around the Internet, understandably receiving a massive amount of attention and interest. To their credit, the researchers whose work prompted the piece published a…
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Two recent papers address the potential of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to decrease HIV rebound from persistent reservoirs. In the journal Cell, Ariel Halper-Stromberg and colleagues report the results of experiments conducted in the humanized mouse model with a “tri-mix” of three monoclonal bNAbs: 3BNC117, 10-1074, and PG16. When administered as post-exposure prophylaxis four days…
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Several independent research groups have identified ingenol esters, compounds derived from the tropical shrub Euphorbia tirucalli, as potent activators of latent HIV. Papers published in the journals Virology and AIDS report that a specific semi-synthetic ingenol ester named 3-caproyl-ingenol (ING B) demonstrates the greatest promise and may represent a candidate for clinical trials. The compound…