Fifteen years ago, at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), researchers announced that they had cured a patient – Timothy Ray Brown, initially known only as the Berlin Patient to preserve his privacy – of HIV through a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Now, as researchers are gathered in Seattle for CROI 2023, reports of another cured patient were published Feb. 20, 2023, in Nature Medicine. Ten years after receiving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and 4 years after stopping antiretroviral treatment (ART), a 53-year-old patient may have been cured of HIV infection.
Results published Feb. 17, 2023, in Immunity have given a wider view of what happens in the earliest stages of HIV infection. Treatments against HIV prevent the replication of the virus, but do not kill the reservoir of latently infected cells that starts to build almost immediately upon infection.
Carna Biosciences Inc. has synthesized 1,2-diaminobenzimidazole derivatives acting as stimulator of interferon genes protein (STING) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, viral infection, neurodegeneration and autoimmune, inflammatory, metabolic, eye and cardiovascular disorders, among others.
Tumor-specific CD8 T cells play a prominent role in antitumor immunity. However, these cells regularly enter a state of exhaustion due to chronic antigen stimulation within the tumor microenvironment.
Oncolytic virus immunotherapy has been proposed as a step forward for cancer treatment because it can kill cancer cells while activating the immune system. However, its current clinical application is limited because targeting deep-seated cancers is challenging and because the complement and innate immunity rapidly clear oncolytic viruses administered systemically.
Pancreatic cancer still remains a highly lethal disease, with a 5-year survival rate of <10%. It is characterized by strong stromal activation leading to pro-tumorigenic extracellular matrix deposition. Recent findings in preclinical models have unveiled that targeting desmoplasia may improve chemotherapy efficacy and impede metastasis in pancreatic cancer.
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