The suggested readings can be found at the following URLs:
Sounds interesting to me!
Friday, January 30, 2015
Olu's Seminar
Mr. Olu Ogunwumi will be presenting seminar next week, Friday, February 6th. The title of his presentation is "Development of monoclonal antibodies against HIV-1 viral protein r using hybridoma technology."
The suggested readings can be found at the following URLs:
Sounds interesting to me!
The suggested readings can be found at the following URLs:
Sounds interesting to me!
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Olu spoke to us about his work on the HIV protein product known as VPR. VPR plays an important role during the infection process with functions in apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, nuclear import, and reverse transcription. In Dr. Fagan's lab, Olu attempts to use hybridoma technology against VPR in the development of HIV diagnostic tools.
ReplyDeleteHIV/AIDS is still considered a worldwide epidemic even, today. What are some other recent developments put forth by scientists and doctors in the fight agains HIV/AIDS?
There was a speaker at YSU a couple years ago (can't remember her name, she was a russian scientist) who was working on an HIV vaccination. The problem was that most exterior viral coat proteins have very high mutation rates, allowing them to escape the host's immunity.
ReplyDeleteI remember this speaker. She spoke at the Fall 2014 graduate seminar and was from Kent State U. Her talk was very interesting because rather than take the traditional molecular/immunological approach, she and her colleagues took a bioinformatic approach. They looked for highly conserved regions in the viral DNA to find targets for a vaccine. The limitation however is the work is more theoretical, but promising.
Deleteit was Dr. Helen Piontkivska. Random fact: I had her for genetics at Kent
DeleteFrom what I have read, it looks like one of the main focuses is in HIV prevention. Researchers have found that an injectable,GSK-744LA, has been successful in protecting monkeys who may have been exposed to the HIV virus. So essentially it is acting in a similar way as a vaccine would from what I understood. So basically these monkeys were not HIV positive yet but they were exposed to the HIV virus. They are basically trying to stop the virus from infecting the host once the host has been exposed to it. I believe they have oral medication that works in a similar way but the medicine has to be taken every day. This injection would only be needed every 3 months.
ReplyDeleteSummary Response: I did not know that any work on HIV was being done at YSU and Olu’s presentation was a great insight into the type of HIV research that’s possible using the technology we have available. The intricate nature of developing these type of antibodies is fascinating and makes me wonder what other components of the HIV virus remain understudied.
ReplyDeleteQuestion Response: While not pertaining to any scientific research, a smartphone-compatible HIV tester is being developed. Obviously constant research will be required for this disease for the foreseeable future, but the easier it is for people to determine whether or not they have HIV, the easier it will be to both begin treatment earlier and to make sure that it is not spread because people do not know they are HIV positive.
Olu’s presentation was a great insight into HIV/AIDS research. It’s interesting to know that such a critically important disease such as HIV still has so many unknowns in regards to research. Olu’s implementation of ELISA techniques looks like a great beginning towards the development of these antibodies specifically active against the HIV-1 viral protein r. It would be amazing if it’s one of the seemingly more minor or at least less studied components of HIV that end up developing more effective treatments against it.
ReplyDeleteThe University of Pennsylvania has been doing research on measuring biomarkers
that show the potential to help better guide both future HIV treatment and help determine when HIV patients should begin current treatments such as antiretroviral therapy.
Along with what Josh was saying, I have noticed a large push for more readily available HIV test kits. In 2012, the FDA approved test kits that can be personally used in the privacy of your home. These kits have come a long way in the last couple of years. You can now purchase them for only like $20, and they even have ones that don't have to be sent anywhere for results. There are different kinds of tests available that will test for antibodies, p24 viral protein, genetic material of HIV, or a combination. Results can take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple weeks. Hopefully the research resulting in easy access to testing will allow for less transmission by people who haven't even realized they're HIV positive.
ReplyDeleteI found an interesting article about how gene editing techniques are able to make cells resistant to HIV by editing genes for certain receptors on the surface of the cell. By using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, they remove the genes that code for CCR5 receptor from T-cell. This prevents HIV from infecting the T-cells within the immune system and make the cells resistant to the virus.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/abstract/S1934-5909(14)00455-X
I thought Olu's presentation was very informative as well as entertaining. I am not very educated on the new research of HIV so the presentation was all new techniques for me.
ReplyDeleteA couple things that are being worked on are injections that are antivirus suppression drugs and vaginal rings. The injections would be treatments that last in the body for 2-3 months at a times rather than the daily pill. And the vaginal ring is being developed to slowly release antiviral drugs slowly so women would not be able to contract AIDS/HIV.
UC Davis has just recently been approved for human clinical trials using autologous stem cells that undergo gene manipulation making them HIV resistant. Previously, this has been tested in mouse models and achieved great success. It's believed that by introducing the tCD25 pre-selective anti-HIV lentiviral vector from human hematopoietic stem cells the infected individuals can be effectively cured. The publication related to the study can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/stem.1919/abstract
I read an article not long ago which stated that current HIV strains have actually become weaker as a result of certain mutations. This is quite good, since this weaker virus slows down the progression of infection and delays the development of AIDS. There is a drug that can be used called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) which blocks attachment of the virus and prevents initial infection. It is a once a day pill taken by individuals who are HIV- but have a particular high risk for contracting HIV and it is able to prevent infection about 92% of the time. However, there are problems with this treatment. The drug is insanely expensive. Each pill costs about 35$ so over a year that comes to about 13,000$. Also remembering to take the pill everyday may be challenging. While efforts to develop vaccines against HIV have been largely unsuccessful, they seem to be the best hope for the large-scale prevention of HIV transmittance.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the question, lack of access to medical help and preventative measures is part of what makes HIV/AIDS the epidemic it is. In this respect, organizations like the WHO and MSF are a breakthrough, in that they attempt to provide these services to communities that lack them.
ReplyDeleteOlu you did a great job presenting and you were very informative!
ReplyDeleteAlong with what Zack said not only are there many organizations giving individuals with HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs and other treatment methods, but they are also providing them with preventive services as well. For example, there are needle exchange programs for drug users.
The use of a Nanoparticle technology loaded with different compounds have the potential in treating HIV/AIDS. One study showed that nanoparticles loaded with Mellitin, a compound found in Bee venom, could deliver the agent to the HIV, causing the breakdown of the outer protein envelope of the virus. THis could lead to potential preventive gels that prevent the spread of the virus. Furthermore, it is believed that nanoparticle technology can be used therapeutically for individuals whom are already infected by the virus.
ReplyDelete