Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and collaborators recently conducted a study investigating the mechanisms of HIV-1 resistance to integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs), such as the approved drug dolutegravir (DTG). They focused on understanding the mechanisms of resistance caused by mutations at positions 138, 140, and 148 and analyzed combinations of the mutations E138K, G140A/S, and Q148H/K/R, all conferring resistance to INSTIs.

It has gone unnoticed in HIV research until now, but a transcriptomic analysis has detected a molecule that could kill this virus. Scientists at a U.S. military research institute laboratory have found a common factor in human cells that inhibited the replication of HIV-1 in people living with the virus. “Without any manipulation of cells in people with HIV, we have found a host factor that is inhibiting HIV in vivo,” the senior author Rasmi Thomas, chief of the Laboratory of Integrative Multiomics at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told BioWorld. Using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), the study published on Aug. 2, 2023, in Science Translational Medicine identified this host factor as prothymosin α, a protein isolated from the thymus in 1966 and described in 1984.

Researchers from Laboratoire Biodim presented the discovery of novel HIV-1 integrase-LEDGF allosteric inhibitors (INLAIs), designed to share the binding site on the viral protein with the host factor LEDGF/p75. INLAIs act as molecular glues to promote hyper-multimerization of HIV-1 integrase protein to produce defective progeny virions, and as such, severely disrupt maturation of viral particles.

A new vaccine that uses the native-like HIV-1 envelope (Env) trimer CH505 and a Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7/8 agonist adjuvant, successfully evaluated in macaques, generated potent polyclonal neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and a high protection against the infection of the homologous simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV).

Hologic Inc. has gained approval from the U.S. FDA to add a diagnostic claim to its HIV type 1 viral load monitoring assay. This makes the Aptima HIV-1 Quant Dx assay the first dual-claim assay in the U.S., allowing both viral load monitoring and diagnosis. For laboratories that use the assay, the dual claim allows for consolidated testing on one automated platform, adding to efficiency.