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Scientists report failure in strategy to reverse latency

Scientists at [b]Johns Hopkins[/b] report that compounds they hoped would ‘wake up’ dormant reservoirs of HIV inside immune system T cells – a strategy designed to reverse latency and make the cells vulnerable to destruction – have failed to do so in laboratory tests of such white blood cells taken directly from patients infected with HIV. A [s]News-Medical[/s] report quotes [b]Prof Robert Siliciano[/b], of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a [b]Howard Hughes Medical Institute[/b] investigator, as saying: 'Despite our high hopes, none of the compounds we tested in HIV-infected cells taken directly from patients activated the latent virus.' The report says the failure challenges the idea that a single so-called latency-reversing agent can uncover the HIV hiding out in the cells of patients whose viral load is essentially undetectable with blood tests.

[link url=http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140324/Drugs-fail-to-wake-up-dormant-reservoirs-of-HIV-inside-immune-system-T-cells.aspx]Full News-Medical report[/link]
[link url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140323151720.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news+(ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News)]Full Science Daily report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3489.html]Nature Medicine article preview[/link]

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