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.
The dent made in Bavarian Nordic A/S’ future revenues after it dropped development of late-stage respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) contender MVA-BN-RSV could be offset by potential sales of its chikungunya virus vaccine, PXVX-0317, if recent phase III immunogenicity data manage to persuade the U.S. FDA that it’s as worthy as Valneva SA’s VLA-1553, the other chikungunya vaccine racing to be first to market.
Centre Hospitalier Regional Universitaire de Lille and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique have patented norbornene analogues reported to be useful for the treatment of tuberculosis.
A study of the genetic determinants of HIV viral load in 3,879 people of African ancestries has found what is claimed to be the only new variant related to HIV infection discovered in more than two decades of research into how host genomics affects the response to the retrovirus.
For people living with HIV, the single greatest achievement to date has been the emergence of antiretroviral treatments (ART) that completely block the virus, resulting in reduced mortality and morbidity and improved quality of life. But taking one pill a day for life cannot be the end of this journey, speakers said during the International AIDS Society meeting held July 23 to 26 in Brisbane, Australia. Even with the success of ART, drug adherence remains a problem due to pill fatigue or depression and other mental health conditions, as well as drug-drug interactions, said Claudia Cortes, associate professor at the University of Chile in Santiago. New drugs that are longer lasting, more convenient, and affordable are desperately needed, she said.
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.
Although huge strides have been made with antiretroviral therapy (ART) and prevention since HIV was first reported 42 years ago, there is still not an effective preventive vaccine or a scalable cure for those living with HIV. But broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) look to be a further step down the pathway to a cure, speakers said during the International AIDS Society meeting held July 23 to 26 in Brisbane, Australia.
A new bacteriophage-based rapid test has the potential to identify the specific pathogen causing a urinary tract infection (UTI) at the point of care, enabling targeted use of antibiotics.
The test uses naturally occurring phages identified as predators of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Enterococci that are genetically modified to make any bacterium they invade bioluminescent.
In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, were able to reliably detect the pathogenic bacteria in a urine sample in less than four hours. That compares to the 18 – 30 hours it takes to culture samples in a central lab and to identify a specific microbe using conventional diagnostics.
Evaxion Biotech A/S has presented promising results on EVX-B1, a vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus containing antigens identified using artificial intelligence. EVX-B1 induces strong immune responses, both cellular and humoral, that translate to a high level of protection in preclinical models for skin infection and sepsis.
Suzhou Ark Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. researchers have prepared and tested heteroaromatic bicyclic compounds reported to be useful for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.
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