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NIAID: Persistent Bacterial Infection Exploits Killing Machinery of Immune Cells
"The research team discovered that intracellular pathogens increase levels of arginase, thereby reducing the amount of nitric oxide the macrophages produce, enabling intracellular pathogens to survive. The presence of persistent intracellular bacteria is particularly harmful to people with compromised immune systems, such as people with HIV or cancer, who often contract chronic bacterial and parasitic infections."
Study: Model for STEP Vaccine Trial Failure
"The STEP HIV vaccine trial, which evaluated a replication-defective adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) vector vaccine, was recently stopped. The reasons for this included lack of efficacy of the vaccine and a twofold increase in the incidence of HIV acquisition among vaccinated recipients with increased Ad5-neutralizing antibody titers compared with placebo recipients. To model the events that might be occurring in vivo, the effect on dendritic cells (DCs) of Ad5 vector alone or treated with neutralizing antiserum (Ad5 immune complexes [IC]) was compared."
Study: New Potential NNRTIs
"Indolyl aryl sulfone (IAS) non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors (NNRTIs) have been previously shown to effectively inhibit wild-type (wt) and drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication. IASs proved to act through different mechanisms of action, depending on the nature and position of their chemical substituents. These results demonstrate that IASs are very flexible molecules, interacting dynamically with the viral RT, and that this property can be successfully exploited to design inhibitors endowed with an enhanced binding to common NNRTI-resistant mutants."
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