TAG HIV Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project Blog
By Richard Jefferys, Project Director at Treatment Action Group (TAG).
recent posts
- HIV Cure Research at AIDS 2026
- In The News: CAR-T Cells for HIV
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the March 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the February 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the December 2025 and January 2026 Updates
Category: Miscellaneous
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Part of the normal functioning of cells involves the breakdown of disused protein products, which become the equivalent of cellular garbage. A diverse group of molecules called class I MHC receptors have the job of transporting fragments of these trashed proteins (epitopes) to the cell surface where they are displayed to passing CD8 T cells.…
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Two free full-text reviews addressing the development and functions of memory CD4 T cells are available online from the journal Immunology. Immunology. 2010 Mar 16. [Epub ahead of print] The potential of CD4(+) T-cell memory. McKinstry KK, Strutt TM, Swain SL. Trudeau Institute, Saranac Lake, NY, USA. While many aspects of memory T-cell immunobiology have…
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A study just published in the Journal of Biochemistry has generated a great deal of press coverage because it reports that a compound derived from bananas can inhibit HIV in a lab dish. The substance, a banana lectin known as BanLec, was first discovered twenty years ago and shown to be a potent mitogen (a…
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A new paper in PLoS One by Collin Diedrich and colleagues reports progress in developing an animal model of HIV/TB coinfection. Cynomolgus macaques with latent TB were infected with the pathogenic SIVmac251 and studied to assess the factors associated with reactivation of TB. The authors report that there was a significant correlation between the depletion…
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The Cell Press journals Neuron and Immunity have collaborated to produce a timely free-access special issue focusing on the interrelatedness of neural and immune systems. The editors of Neuron write: "The brain was once thought to be a largely 'immune-privileged' system. Traditionally, research has reflected this segregation, with neuroscientists focusing on the nervous system and immunologists…
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The January 2010 issue of the journal Clinical Immunology is offering free access to a series of articles addressing the immunology of cardiovascular disease. Among a range of related subjects, the reviews address data on the roles of innate and adaptive immunity in the development of atherosclerosis and the status of experimental immunotherapeutic approaches to treating…
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The journal Trends in Immunology has published a special issue on immune senescence, and access to all articles is being offered free of charge (thanks to the sponsorship of the National Institutes of Health). The parallels between immune senescence in uninfected elderly individuals and people with HIV are increasingly well-recognized and include: Depletion of naive…
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Two papers in last week’s issue of Nature report that memory CD8 T cell responses can be enhanced by drugs that alter cellular metabolism. In one of the studies, the drug rapamycin – generally used as an immune suppressant – also accelerated the development of functional memory CD8 T cells. The findings may assist efforts…
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A new paper in the journal Immunity reports that a substantial proportion of antigen-specific memory CD4 T cells take up residence in the bone marrow after an immune response, at least in mice. The paper adds to a growing body of evidence that the bone marrow represents a key – perhaps the key – site…
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A new paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine reports that protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7) is a surface marker that can be used to identify naïve CD4 T cells that have very recently exited the thymus (also called recent thymic emigrants or RTEs). Tracking thymic production of RTEs is important for monitoring immune reconstitution in…