New insights into the immunology and evolution of HIV

Abstract

Fewer than one million HIV infected individuals are currently receiving anti-retroviral therapy. The limitations of such treatment have underscored the need to develop more effective strategies to control the spread and pathogenesis of HIV. Typically, naturally occurring protective immune responses provide the paradigm for such development. It is now clear however that HIV can utilise the millieu of an activated immune system to its own replicative advantage. Mobilisation of the immune response, intended to thwart the virus, may instead fuel its dissemination, 'immune escape' and spread. The immense genetic variation of HIV contributes to lack of immune control and the development of progressive disease in the majority of infected, untreated individuals. Further delineation of the intimate interactions between the HIV and the immune system will be critical and recent advances in this direction are discussed.

Purification and characterization of Moschatin, a novel type I ribosome-inactivating protein from the mature seeds of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata), and preparation of its immunotoxin against human melanoma cells

“…They are shown to have diversified biological functions, such as antiviral (anti-HIV), antifungal and insecticidal properties [3][4][5][6]. They are rRNA N-glycosidase that site-specifically cleaves the N-glycosidic bond of a specific adenosine residue (A 4324 ) in a highly conserved loop (the sarcin/ricin domain) of the largest ribosomal RNA.…”

Therapeutic polypeptides based on HBcAg18-27CTL epitope can induce antigen-specific CD8+CTL-mediated cytotoxicity in HLA-A2 transgenic mice

“…Hence new generations of therapeutic vaccines should be designed on the basis of immunodominant epitopes which could induce CTL responses different from that induced by natural virus infection, and at the same time hold the specificity of HBV antigens. As in other infections with noncytopathic viruses, helper T cells control the intensity of CD8 + T-cell responses and helper Tcell responses might be compromised in chronic carriers of HBV [27][28][29][30][31][32] . In this paper, we chose the immunodominant B cell epitope of HBV PreS 2 region and the CTL epitope of HBcAg, and introduced them into the common T helper epitope of tetanus toxoid to strengthen the Th response.Three mimetic peptides based on the above epitopes were initially designed and synthesized, and their immunological properties of inducing T H1 polarization, CD8…”

“…In all experiments, spontaneous counts should be less than 30% of maximum counts. CTL responses were considered positive if exceeded the mean of specific lysis caused by irrelevant mimetic antigen (MART-1 [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] ) by 3 standard deviations and by 10%.…”

“…The common T helper epitope of tetanus toxoid and the Pre-S2 B-epitope were linked to the N-and Ctermini of the HBcAg 18-27 sequence respectively with the linker of"-Ala-Ala-Ala-" and "-Gly-Gly-Gly-" as peptide3 (QYIKANSKFIGITE AAA FLPSDFFPSV GGG DPRVRGLYFPA). Melanoma associated MART-1 [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] CTL epitope peptide (AAGIGILTV) was used as irrelevant control.…”

Mutations in the RNase H Primer Grip Domain of Murine Leukemia Virus Reverse Transcriptase Decrease Efficiency and Accuracy of Plus-Strand DNA Transfer

“…This genetic variation is of clinical significance because it is the basis for antiviral drug resistance and escape from host immune responses readily exhibited by retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (12,21,25,27,35,36). The rapid evolution of retroviruses is also an impediment to the design of broadly effective vaccines against HIV- 1 (11, 40).…”