In vivo activation of latent HIV with a synthetic bryostatin analog effects both latent cell "kick" and "kill" in strategy for virus eradication

by Matthew D. Marsden, Brian A. Loy, Xiaomeng Wu, Christina M. Ramirez, Adam J. Schrier, Danielle Murray, Akira Shimizu, Steven M. Ryckbosch, Katherine E. Near, Tae-Wook Chun, Paul A. Wender, Jerome A. Zack

The ability of HIV to establish a long-lived latent infection within resting CD4+ T cells leads to persistence and episodic resupply of the virus in patients treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), thereby preventing eradication of the disease. Protein kinase C (PKC) modulators such as bryostatin 1 can activate these latently infected cells, potentially leading to their elimination by virus-mediated cytopathic effects, the host's immune response and/or therapeutic strategies targeting cells actively expressing virus. While research in this area has focused heavily on naturally-occurring PKC modulators, their study has been hampered by their limited and variable availability, and equally significantly by sub-optimal activity and in vivo tolerability. Here we show that a designed, synthetically-accessible analog of bryostatin 1 is better-tolerated in vivo when compared with the naturally-occurring product and potently induces HIV expression from latency in humanized BLT mice, a proven and important model for studying HIV persistence and pathogenesis in vivo. Importantly, this induction of virus expression causes some of the newly HIV-expressing cells to die. Thus, designed, synthetically-accessible, tunable, and efficacious bryostatin analogs can mediate both a "kick" and "kill" response in latently-infected cells and exhibit improved tolerability, therefore showing unique promise as clinical adjuvants for HIV eradication.

from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2wBnk0i
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