EDITOR'S PICK: New approach to targeting the hidden reservoir of HIV
The drugs used to treat individuals infected with HIV-1 keep the virus under control and dramatically improve prognosis, but they do not eliminate the virus from the body completely, some remains hidden in immune cells known as resting CD4+ T cells. There are currently no clinically acceptable strategies for eliminating this reservoir of HIV-1. However, Robert Siliciano and colleagues, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, have developed an in vitro system that mimics the situation in people and used it to identify a compound that can get at this hidden HIV-1 and eliminate it from the CD4+ T cells. Importantly, this compound does not cause global T cell activation, the side effect that has made other approaches to eliminating the HIV-1 reservoir clinically unacceptable. However, it has other potential toxicity issues that are likely to preclude its use in the clinic. The authors therefore hope to use their in vitro system to screen more compounds so that a clinically acceptable drug that eliminates HIV-1 can be developed.
TITLE: Small-molecule screening using a human primary cell model of HIV latency identifies compounds that reverse latency without cellular activation
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Robert F. Siliciano
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Phone: (410) 955-2958; Fax: (443) 287-6218; E-mail: rsiliciano@jhmi.edu.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=39199
EDITOR'S PICK: Keeping hepatitis C virus at bay after a liver transplant
One of the most common reasons for needing a liver transplant is liver failure or liver cancer caused by liver cell infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, in nearly all patients the new liver becomes infected with HCV almost immediately. But now, Hideki Ohdan, Kazuaki Chayama, and colleagues, at Hiroshima University, Japan, have developed an approach that transiently keeps HCV levels down in most treated HCV-infected patients receiving a new liver.
Specifically, the team took immune cells known as lymphocytes from the donor livers before they were transplanted into the HCV-infected patients, activated them in vitro, and then injected them into the patients three days after they had received their liver transplants. Importantly, these infused cells were able to keep the HCV at bay even though the patients were taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting the new livers. Despite showing clear clinical effects, the authors are planning further studies in which they will modify the protocol in an attempt to find a way to keep HCV levels down for longer and in all patients.
TITLE: Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft–derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Hideki Ohdan
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
Phone: 81-82-257-5220; Fax: 81-82-257-5224; E-mail: hohdan@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.
Kazuaki Chayama
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
Phone: 81-82-257-5190; Fax: 81-81-257-5194; E-mail: chayama@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=38374
VASCULAR BIOLOGY: Seeing clearly blood vessel malformation
TITLE: Real-time imaging of de novo arteriovenous malformation in a mouse model of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia
AUTHOR CONTACT:
S. Paul Oh
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Phone: (352) 273-8232; Fax: (352) 273-8300; E-mail: ohp@ufl.edu.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=39482
METABOLIC DISEASE: Dissecting how commonly used diabetes drugs work
TITLE: Suppression of KATP channel activity protects murine pancreatic beta-cells against oxidative stress
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Martina Düfer
University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Phone: 49-7071-2974554; Fax: 49-7071-295382; E-mail: martina.duefer@uni-tuebingen.de.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=38817
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: The molecule syndecan-1 helps clear fats that promote blood vessel hardening
TITLE: Syndecan-1 is the primary heparan sulfate proteoglycan mediating hepatic clearance of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in mice
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Jeffrey D. Esko
University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Phone: (858) 822-1100; Fax: (858) 534-5611; E-mail: jesko@ucsd.edu.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=38251
GASTROENTEROLOGY: Understanding inflammatory disease of the pancreas
TITLE: Impaired autophagic flux mediates acinar cell vacuole formation and trypsinogen activation in rodent models of acute pancreatitis
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Anna S. Gukovskaya
Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Phone: (310) 478-3711 ext. 41525; Fax: (310) 268-4578; E-mail: agukovsk@ucla.edu.
Ilya Gukovsky
Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Phone: (310) 478-3711 ext. 41424; Fax: (310) 268-4578; E-mail: igukovsk@ucla.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Rachel Champeau
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Phone: (310) 794-2270; E-mail: rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=38674
Journal
Journal of Clinical Investigation