TAG HIV Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project Blog

By Richard Jefferys, Project Director at Treatment Action Group (TAG).

recent posts

Category: Treatment

  • HIV Infection, Inflammation, and Premature Aging

    Webcasts from a symposium on this topic, held on May 18 by the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California at San Francisco, are being made available online. Five talks addressing the intersection of HIV and aging have been posted, with more presentations from the afternoon session coming soon.  The Intersection of HIV…

  • Antiretroviral Therapy Dramatically Reduces HIV Transmission

    A recent posting linked to the abstract of a study evaluating the impact of ART on HIV transmission that was presented at CROI earlier this year. The full results have now been published in the Lancet. The paper is generating considerable press coverage because the effect of ART was dramatic, equating to a 92% reduction…

  • The Impact of Antiretroviral Treatment on HIV Transmission Risk

    A study published in the British Medical Journal reports that receipt of antiretroviral treatment (ART) was associated with an absence of HIV transmission among discordant couples in Spain. The authors acknowledge that their findings should be interpreted with caution due to several limitations, particularly a high rate of loss to follow-up during the prospective part…

  • The Impact of HIV Infection and Antiretroviral Therapy on TB-Specific T Cell Function

    Following up on a prior post about the link between loss of T cell responses to tuberculosis and reactivation TB disease, a new paper in the Journal of Immunology reports on the functionality of TB-specific T cell responses before and after antiretroviral treatment (ART). The study – led by Jayne S. Sutherland from the Medical…

  • Coagulation and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Children and Adolescents with HIV

    The Strategies for the Management of AntiRetroviral Therapy (SMART) trial has transformed HIV research by unambiguously demonstrating the link between viral replication, inflammation and clinical outcomes. A detailed sub-study in SMART found that, in adults, particular coagulation and inflammatory biomarkers (specifically D-dimer and IL-6) were very strongly associated with mortality risk, and levels of these…

  • Bad to the Bone Marrow?

    The extent to which HIV may infect CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells (stem cells) in the bone marrow has been the subject of controversy for more than two decades. Early studies documented the presence of HIV in CD34+ cells in a subset of people with advanced disease, but a subsequent report offered little evidence of infection in…

  • Indirect HIV Inhibition by Anti-Phospholipid Antibodies

    Last week researchers from Duke University reported that several antibodies targeting phospholipids can potently inhibit HIV replication by an indirect mechanism. Phospholipids are components of cell membranes that under certain circumstances can be targeted by antibodies; in some cases this phenomenon is associated with autoimmune disease (such as lupus) but anti-phospholipid antibodies have also been…

  • Have Rumors of Poor Gut CD4 T Cell Reconstitution Been Greatly Exaggerated?

    In recent years, loss of CD4 T cells from the gut of HIV-positive people has become a major research focus. Gut CD4 T cell depletion happens rapidly after infection, and many studies have suggested that recovery of these cells is typically limited even after prolonged antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the bleakest data has been obtained…

  • Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation in HIV Controllers

    Immunological control of HIV replication in the absence of treatment is associated with relative preservation of CD4 T cell counts. However recent studies have shown that, in most cases, levels of immune activation are still elevated compared to uninfected individuals, and the magnitude of immune activation is associated with the pace of attrition of peripheral…

  • T Cell to T Cell Spread of HIV is Sensitive to Entry Inhibition

    One of the most efficient means by which HIV spreads between cells is by promoting cell to cell contacts. The virus is then transferred from infected to uninfected cell via what has been dubbed a “virological synapse.” Some prior studies have raised the concern that this process may be invulnerable to approaches designed to inhibit viral…