Important note: Information in this article was accurate in August 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; August 5, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer
"The latent reservoir of HIV-1 in quiescent T cells is thought to be a major obstacle to clearance of infection by highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)," explained Yael D. Korin and colleagues at the University of California at Los Angeles and the AIDS Research Alliance in West Hollywood.
Prostratin can reactivate viral expression in latently infected cellswhich can then be eliminated by HAART agentsKorin and coauthors report.
The researchers devised a murine model to test the efficacy of prostratina phorbol ester lacking the tumorogenic properties usually seen in such compounds. Immunodeficient transgenic mice exported high quantities of latently activated thymocytes to the periphery during thymopoiesisthey saidmaking them an excellent model for evaluating factors involved in viral reactivation.
Prostratin exposure triggered HIV expression by latently infected human thymocytes in study miceaccording to the report. Similar results were seen when latently infected peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) were stimulated by prostratin in vivo.
Quiescent PBLs showed a proliferative response to prostratinbut only during CD28 or T-cell receptor stimulation (Effects of prostratin on T-cell activation and human immunodeficiency virus latency. J Virol 2002 Aug 15;76(16):8118-23.
"Our data indicate that prostratin alone is able to specifically reactivate latent virus in the absence of cellular proliferationmaking it an attractive candidate for further study as an adjunctive therapy for the elimination of the latent HIV reservoir," Korin and colleagues concluded.
The corresponding author for this report is Jerome A. ZackUCLA AIDS InstituteUCLA School of Medicine11-934 Louis Factor Bldg.10833 Le Conte Ave.Los AngelesCA 90095USA. E-mail: jzack@ucla.edu.
A search at www.NewsRx.net using the term "AIDS and HIV therapy" yielded 1146 articles in 28 specialized reports.
Key points reported in this study include:
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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