Encouraging Health

Scientists have engineered an immune cell that can find and attack HIV, even when it mutates.

Courtesy Lindsey Chapman: Scientists from the United States and Britain have genetically engineered a human immune cell to attack HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), even when it mutates to disguise itself.

Not only can “killer T-cells” determine when other cells had been infected with HIV, but they also slowed the spread of HIV in a lab dish, according to Reuters.

HIV is a tricky virus because it can disguise itself to hide from immune cells. Scientists reported, however, that it took fewer engineered T-cells a shorter amount of time to find and control HIV than a natural T-cell.

“In the face of our engineered assassin cells, the virus will either die or be forced to change its disguises again, weakening itself along the way,” Andy Sewell of Britain’s Cardiff University told The BBC. “We’d prefer the first option but I suspect we’ll see the latter. Even if we do only cripple the virus, this will still be a good outcome, as it is likely to become a much slower target and be easier to pick off.”

T-cell treatment testing in HIV patients could start as early as next year.

Earlier this year, scientists published information about whether it is possible to make people immune to HIV through new gene-editing techniques.

CCR5 is a protein on the surface of T-cells that the HIV uses to pull itself inside a human cell. A research team from the University of Pennsylvania announced that it had developed a method to clip the protein out of some T-cells. The method was tested on mice, not humans, “so it should be a source of guarded optimism, because it’s not certain the technique would work in humans,” Wired reported.

Canadian accused of transmitting disease to women; 2 die from virus

A Canadian court started proceedings Monday in the country’s first-ever first-degree murder trial involving the alleged sexual transmission of the HIV virus.

Lawyers told the court that Johnson Aziga, 52, first learned he was HIV positive in 1997, but continued to have unprotected sex without disclosing his condition to his partners. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, can cause AIDS, and the associated immune system failure can make victims susceptible to infections and other diseases.

Aziga faces two counts of first-degree murder because two of his girlfriends died of what lawyers said were HIV-related cancers.

“One may immediately think of a violent rape scenario,” prosecutor Tim Power told the three-woman, nine-man jury. “That is not what this case is all about.”

Rather, Power said in his opening statement, Aziga put his partners at risk of serious bodily harm without their knowing, even having sex with one woman on the morning of his arrest in August 2003.

Johnson was also accused of having unprotected sex with at least 11 women without disclosing his HIV-positive health status.

While there have been several criminal prosecutions in Canada and the U.S. related to the willful spread of HIV, this is the first time someone has been charged with lethally infecting partners, according to the defense lawyers.

“It’s going to be a landmark case,” Aziga’s lawyer, Davies Bagambiire, said. “This is the first time that a Canadian is prosecuted for alleged murder through the alleged dissemination or transmission of the HIV virus.”

Power told the court that evidence will show Aziga, an immigrant from Uganda, had several counseling sessions on the risks of transmission and two public health orders that he inform partners about his status and use condoms during sex, but he did not do so.

In addition, when some of the women asked him directly — including one who initially used condoms with him — if he had the human immunodeficiency virus, he said “no.”

So, be careful when meeting someone and always think someone is positive before having sex! It pays to be careful.

A team of researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Centre and Princeton University has discovered that existing anti-obesity drugs can be used to treat infections like flu, hepatitis or HIV.

Metabolism refers to a process by which living things break down nutrients to produce energy. For instance, the breakdown glucose and its conversation via chain reactions into adenosine triphosphate, the energy-storing currency of cellular life.

Glucose can also be converted into fatty acids - the lipid building blocks of human hormones and cell membranes - that are used by influenza, HIV and hepatitis viruses to build their viral cover and hijack human cells.

During the study, the researchers developed a new technique to analyse the mechanisms regarding how such viruses penetrate the metabolic building blocks from their cellular hosts.

They also studied the fluxes or concentration and turnover, of interchangeable molecules within the metabolic reactions that convert sugars into fatty acids.

“Using new fluxomic techniques, our study reveals that viral infection takes control of cellular metabolism and drives, among other things, marked increases in fatty acid synthesis,” Nature magazine quoted Dr. Joshua Munger, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, and a study author, as saying.

“We also found that if you target these increases in fatty acid metabolism using existing anti-obesity and anti-metabolism drugs, you inhibit viral replication,” Munger added.

The new technique enabled the researchers to measure the changes in metabolic flux in human cells as they became infected by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), an enveloped virus of the b-herpes family that infects most human adults and that causes severe disease in those with weakened immune systems.

The team used drugs known to inhibit enzymes that build fatty acids, acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and fatty acid synthase (FAS), used in the treatment of obesity and high cholesterol, to determine whether HCMV-induced fatty acid production was necessary for enveloped viruses to make copies of themselves.

They found that treatment with TOFA, an ACC inhibitor, led to a more than thousand-fold reduction in HCMV replication, while C75, an inhibitor of FAS, resulted in a more than 100-fold reduction.

But the low-dose HGH injections carry risky side effects, researchers warn

A hormone better known for illicit use among athletes can help treat troublesome complications from the AIDS virus, but with potentially risky side effects, a small study found.

Low-dose injections of human growth hormone, HGH, reduced fat deposits around internal abdominal organs by about 10 percent.

In addition, hormone shots lowered blood pressure and levels of blood fats called triglycerides. But they also resulted in elevated blood sugar levels.

HIV patients often develop fat deposits and high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar, which put them at risk for heart problems. Doctors believe this results from HIV drugs and a faulty immune system caused by the infection.

Medicines can treat some of these complications but fat buildups, which can affect other parts of the body, are harder to fix, although a healthy diet and lots of exercise can help.

The study involved 55 patients with the AIDS virus who also had low levels of naturally occurring human growth hormone, a condition that is relatively common among HIV patients with abnormal fat deposits. Half gave themselves daily hormone shots, the other got dummy medicine for 18 months.

Manufactured versions of HGH have been used by some athletes, body builders and anti-aging enthusiasts to enhance muscle growth and reduce fat. However, its only approved use is for muscle wasting in AIDS patients and conditions that impair growth.

EMD Serono Inc. provided HGH for the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Grinspoon has worked as a consultant for Serono.

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