Latest CD4 Stories

Finding looks at clade C gp120; also reveals unusual autoreactivity between 21c antibody and CD4 receptorScientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have provided the first-ever glimpse of the structure of a key protein"”gp120"”found on the surface of a specific subgroup of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1. In addition, they demonstrated that a particular antibody to gp120 makes contact not only with the protein, but with the CD4 receptor that gp120 uses to...

New study from Universite de Montreal and VGTI may lead to improved defensesNew findings from a Université de Montréal and the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI) study, in collaboration with scientists from the NIH and the McGill University Health Center, may soon lead to an expansion of the drug arsenal used to fight HIV. The Canada-U.S. study published today in the journal Nature Medicine characterizes the pivotal role of two molecules, PD-1 and IL-10, in influencing...

RICHMOND, Calif., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that preliminary data from the University of Pennsylvania investigator sponsored Phase 1 safety study of Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) based product, SB-728-T, for HIV/AIDS were presented on Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Keystone Symposium Session "HIV Biology and Pathogenesis." Sangamo's collaborator, Carl June, M.D., Director of Translational Research at the Abramson...

A major obstacle to HIV research is the virus's exquisite specialization for its human host "“ meaning that scientists' traditional tools, like the humble lab mouse, can deliver only limited information. Now, a team of researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology have made an ingenious assault on this problem by creating a mouse that has key features of HIV infection without being infected with HIV.George Kassiotis, from the Division of Immunoregulation at MRC...

RICHMOND, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that data from the University of Pennsylvania investigator sponsored Phase 1 safety study of Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) based product, SB-728-T, for HIV/AIDS were inadvertently and prematurely disclosed on the internet. Data were presented in a student course at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine from a single subject treated with SB-728-T who, as part of the...

HAYWARD, Calif., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Zyomyx, Inc., a leader in chip-based bioanalysis technologies, today announced that its readerless CD4 point-of-care (POC) technology was selected by Imperial College London's CD4 Initiative as the best-performing POC test method for measuring CD4 T-cell count in HIV/AIDS patients. Zyomyx's CD4 assay is now the only remaining POC product being supported by the CD4 Initiative. With this announcement, Zyomyx is currently entering the commercial phase...

A new study from the Trudeau Institute in Saranac LakeA new study from the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, New York, demonstrates that immune system cells important for both pathogen resistance and vaccine efficacy live longer in older animals but because of this longevity acquire functional defects. The work may provide new targets for boosting immune system function in older individuals.The well-documented decreases in immune system function that accompany aging leave elderly individuals...

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...

RICHMOND, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed and accepted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate an open-label, repeat-dosing Phase 1 clinical trial (SB-728-T-902) of the company's ZFN-based therapeutic, SB-728-T. A single dose Phase 1 clinical study of SB-728-T was initiated in February 2009 and is ongoing at the University of Pennsylvania. Both...

New research helps explain why infection with herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), which causes genital herpes, increases the risk for HIV infection even after successful treatment heals the genital skin sores and breaks that often result from HSV-2.Scientists have uncovered details of an immune-cell environment conducive to HIV infection that persists at the location of HSV-2 genital skin lesions long after they have been treated with oral doses of the drug acyclovir and have healed and the skin...