Researchers boost potency of an HIV-1 antibody, tracing new pathways for vaccine development

Bharat Madan, a postdoctoral researcher in the DeKosky lab, headed research into potential of the vFP16.02 antibody. Credit: Matheus Oliveira de Souza Much like coronavirus, circulating HIV-1 viruses mutate into diverse variants that pose challenges for scientists developing vaccines to protect people from HIV/AIDS. “AIDS vaccine development has been a decades-long challenge partly because our…

A newly proposed model for the shape of the HIV-1 viral shell may change how we understand the disease — ScienceDaily

The matrix shell of the HIV-1 virus may have a different shape than previously thought, and a newly proposed model has significant implications for understanding how the virus functions, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists.

The research suggests that the HIV-1 virus is housed within a spherical matrix shell. When it infects a healthy cell, the shell fuses to the outside…

How a cellular shuttle helps HIV-1 spread in immune organs — ScienceDaily

New insight on how a type of cell facilitates the spread of HIV-1 has been published today in the open-access journal eLife.

The findings in mice suggest that subcapsular sinus macrophages, the first layer of cells in the draining lymph node, act as a kind of ‘shuttle’ for HIV-1 virus-like particles. These cells help the particles spread by loading them onto two types of immune cells, follicular…

Impact of exosomal HIV-1 Tat expression on the human cellular proteome

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IMAGE: Figure 1: Physiological and morphological characteristics of the 293T and the transfected IL16 Lamp2B and m-EXO Tat cell lines. (A) represents the cell viability test and (B-D) represents the morphological… view more 

Credit: Nagib Ahsan, email: [email protected], [email protected] Bharat Ramratnam, email: [email protected]

The cover for issue 54 of Onco…

Supercomputer simulations show new target in HIV-1 replication

[ad_1] A new study has found naturally-occurring compound inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) promotes both assembly and maturation of HIV-1. NSF-XSEDE allocations on the Stampede2 supercomputing system at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and on Anton2 at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center simulated atomistic interactions of IP6 molecule with HIV structural proteins. The research opens door for…

Cross-transmission of HIV-1 precursor may have started in people with unstable forms of the protein — ScienceDaily

In humans, an anti-virus protein known as APOBEC3H may defend against cross-species transmission from chimpanzees of the virus that gave rise to HIV-1. Zeli Zhang of Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany, and colleagues present this finding in a new PLOS Pathogens study.

APOBEC3H, or A3H, is one of several anti-viral proteins known as A3s that repress replication of lentiviruses, a…