How infection site affects the immune system

A new study by scientists at the Gladstone Institutes shows that infection sites could affect the immune system's response to a virus and the way the virus spreads through the body. The researchers focused on common routes of sexual transmission of viruses, such as the lower female reproductive tract and the lower gastrointestinal tract that includes the large intestine and the anus.

These mucosal barriers-the body's openings lined with a membrane called mucosa are responsible for distinguishing between harmless bacteria that normally reside in human and potentially dangerous pathogens, as well as other substances, such as food or sperm. Human body is constantly trying to balance between tolerating harmless elements and defending against the threats.

Reseachers discovered that the body's reaction is different based on the infection site. They showed that the vaginal and rectal cavities activate a distinct immune response to the same pathogen. To conduct the study, research team created a new model of viral infection through the rectum that uses lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), a rodent virus often used in research to model other pathogens. They then compared their findings to their previous work on vaginal infection by LCMV.

In 2016, they showed that vaginal infection causes a delayed response by protective cells. As a result, the immune system takes longer to clear the virus from the female reproductive tract. They also noticed that the virus stayed in the vagina and didn't spread to other parts of the body. In contrast, the new study indicates that, after infection through the rectum, the virus rapidly spreads throughout the body. The scientists also found that the virus wasn't being carried through the blood. Instead, LCMV infects the body's own immune cells, which in turn spread the virus systemically. Interestingly, this is the same dissemination process used by the HIV virus.

The initial immune response elicited depends on the route of infection, and can actually dictate the dissemination of the virus. The researchers revealed that mucosal barriers have different tolerance mechanisms that affect the immune system's response to invading pathogens. Once a virus breaches one of the barriers, early events in the body's response to that virus can play a key role in determining the outcome of an infection.
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HIV virus suppresses virus in humanized mice

A team of Yale researchers tested a new chemical compound that suppresses HIV, protects immune cells, and remains effective for weeks with a single dose. In animal experiments, the compound proved to be a promising new candidate to enhance current HIV treatment regimens-without increasing toxic side effects.

The finding builds on the work of senior co-authors Karen S. Anderson and William L. Jorgensen, who used computational and structure-based design methods to develop a class of compounds that target a viral protein essential for HIV to replicate.

The researchers refined this class of compounds to boost potency, lower toxicity, and improve drug-like properties in order to identify a promising preclinical drug candidate. In collaboration with Priti Kumar's lab at Yale, the drug candidate was tested in mice with transplanted human blood cells and infected with HIV.

In the humanized mice, the compound achieved key goals of HIV treatment: It suppressed the virus to undetectable levels in the blood; it protected the immune cells that the virus infects; and it worked synergistically with approved HIV medications, the researchers said.

Additionally, working with Yale drug delivery expert Mark Saltzman and his laboratory, the researchers found that the effects of a single dose of the compound, delivered in a long-acting nanoparticle form lasted for a month. The compound has potential for improving treatment for HIV.
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Cancer treatment can leads to HIV cure

Cancerous cells and HIV virus multiply in a similar way, both express the same molecules.Certain cancer therapies, like checkpoint inhibitors, could successfully treat HIV.

HIV and cancer patients need strong immune systems to fight diseases; strong immune system can reduce spread of tumours in cancer patients and subdued deadly virus in HIV patients.

Cancer treatment could clear HIV virus, by activating HIV that lies dormant in the patients' cells, because the present HIV drug is unable to detect and kill hidden virus.

Checkpoint inhibitors support the immune system in its fight against cancer, this kind of drug may also activate HIV that lies dormant in cells, and strengthen the immune system to kill the virus.
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ARV injection as effective as ART pills

Monthly AIDS injection may be as effective as daily pill for controlling the AIDS virus. Presently, there is no cure for AIDS, HIV patients must take daily doses of anti-retroviral therapy ART that keeps the HIV virus under control.

Failure to take ART daily may leads to the virus developing resistance to drugs which is very dangerous for the patient and increase the chance of spreading the deadly virus.

HIV patients always start their treatment with an initial course of daily pills to bring the virus under control when they discovered that they have the virus.

After that, some continued with the oral treatment as maintenance to subdued the virus while the rest are shifted onto the prototype, injectable ARV, every four weeks.

Viruses can become resistant to drugs when people take incorrect doses of their prescribed medication at the wrong time or forget to take the drug.
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Patentiflorin A more effective for HIV treatment than AZT

Patentiflorin A, is a chemical derived from the willow-leaved Justicia, It is a compound in a plant found in Southeast Asia.

AZT is an anti-viral drug that reduces the amount of HIV virus in the body and reduces the risk of developing AIDS.

Pateniflotin A is more effective than
AZT for treating HIV virus at the early stage of the infection and when the
virus enters macrophage cells.

It's also effective against drug resistance strains of HIV virus, it may be useful in future for producing better HIV drug.

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Antiretroviral therapy increases life span of HIV patients

Life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by 10 years since the introduction of antiretroviral therapy.

Antiretroviral therapy has been used to treat HIV for 20 years, but newer drugs have fewer side effects, involve taking fewer pills, prevent multiplication of the virus.

Regular treatment, increased use of screening and prevention programmes for conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer have also contributed.

Antiretroviral therapy first became widely used in 1996. It involves a combination of three or more drugs that block the HIV virus from increasing.

It also prevents onward spread of the disease. The World Health Organization  (WHO) now recommends antiretroviral therapy to be given as soon as possible after diagnosis to all people with HIV.

When looking specifically at deaths due to AIDS, the number of deaths during treatment reduced over time between 1996 and 2010, likely as a result of newer drugs being more effective in restoring the immune system.

As a result of the improvements, between 1996 and 2013, the life expectancy of 20-year-olds treated for HIV increased by nine years for women and 10 years for men.