{"id":22512,"date":"2017-10-27T13:06:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T17:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=22512"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:24:07","slug":"ucla-stanford-nih-kick-and-kill-hiv-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/ucla-stanford-nih-kick-and-kill-hiv-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA, Stanford and NIH\u2019s \u2018Kick and Kill\u2019 Approach Could Eliminate Dormant HIV Virus"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of researchers from UCLA, Stanford University, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has <\/span>developed a molecule<\/span><\/a> capable of waking up dormant HIV virus and eliminating it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team calls this approach the \u201ckick and kill\u201d method, and has tested it on mice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Current HIV treatments can make the virus nearly undetectable, thus improving patients\u2019 health, extending the amount of time one can live with the virus, and limiting the chances of spreading it from person to person. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the treatments are unable to eliminate the virus altogether. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is because the virus can hide itself in a small subset of T-cells. These cells can\u2019t be detected by the immune system, or affected by drugs. But when patients stop treatment, it is very easy for the virus to emerge from the T-cells, multiply, and weaken the immune system. This also runs the risk of causing cancer or infections that can sicken or kill patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe latent HIV reservoir is very stable and can reactivate virus replication if a patient stops taking antiretroviral drugs for any reason,\u201d said lead author Matthew Marsden, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology oncology at the<\/span> David Geffen School of Medicine<\/span><\/a> at UCLA,<\/span> in a statement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur study suggests that there may be means of activating latent virus in the body while the patient is on antiretroviral drugs to prevent the virus from spreading, and that this may eliminate at least some of the latent reservoir.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s \u201ckick and kill\u201d approach awakens the dormant virus and causes it to start replicating. When the virus comes out from hiding, the immune system or the virus itself would kill the cells holding HIV.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018kick\u2019 component of kick and kill is intended to activate expression of the latent virus while on therapy to prevent spread of infection,\u201d said senior author<\/span> Jerome Zack<\/span><\/a>, professor of medicine and chair of the department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the Geffen School, who also serves as director of the<\/span> UCLA Center for AIDS Research<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThis new viral expression can be detected by the \u2018kill\u2019 portion, which results in the death of the previously latently infected cell, thereby eliminating that latent virus,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

To test their method, the researchers gave antiviral drugs to HIV-infected mice. They then introduced a synthetic compound developed at Stanford called SUW133 to the mice. This synthetic compound activated dormant HIV cells in the mice and destroyed 25 percent of the previously HIV-infected dormant cells in less than 24 hours. <\/span><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s synthetic compound is based on a natural compound bryostatin 1, which is extracted from a marine animal called Bugula neritina. Although the synthetic compound is less toxic than the naturally occurring version, it is still too dangerous to be used in humans. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis study points the way towards an approach that may result in elimination of HIV infection from the body,\u201d Zack said.<\/span><\/p>\n

While we are not completely there yet, this suggests that strategies such as \u2018kick and kill\u2019 might prove useful in the future.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the tests were deemed successful, there is still work to be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers plan on further modification of their synthetic molecule to reduce toxicity and insure safety and efficacy, Zack said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The next step is to perform additional testing to confirm the patients won\u2019t experience any harm. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur mouse model is not a perfect representation of the human clinical situation, thus the molecules could behave differently in a true clinical situation,\u201d Zack said. \u201cWe hope this is not the case, but this is why we need additional testing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional authors of the study are Xiaomeng Wu and Christina Ramirez from UCLA; Brian Loy, Adam Schrier, Akira Shimizu, Steven Ryckbosch, Katherine Near and Paul Wender from Stanford; and Danielle Murray and Tae-Wook Chun from the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study is published in <\/span>PLOS<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of researchers from UCLA, Stanford University, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a molecule capable of waking up dormant HIV virus and eliminating it. The team calls this approach the \u201ckick and kill\u201d method, and has tested it on mice. Current HIV treatments can make the virus nearly undetectable, thus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":22511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,444,230,229,485,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medical-breakthrough","category-stanford-university","category-news","category-lead-stories","category-university-of-california-los-angeles","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A team of researchers from UCLA, Stanford University, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a molecule capable of waking up dormant HIV virus and eliminating it. The team calls this approach the \u201ckick and kill\u201d method, and has tested it on mice. Current HIV treatments can make the virus nearly undetectable, thus…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hivvirus.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}