The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7332 p43
15 January 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Cytokine stimulates latent HIV

A cytokine previously shown to enhance the destruction of the HIV-1 virus in vitro has now also been shown to reactivate dormant HIV-1 viruses in patients on highly active anti-retroviral therapy, making the virus susceptible to the drugs.

Cytokine IL-7 was found to stimulate the latent provirus more effectively than other proteins, and the strains stimulated were found to be different from those stimulated by other proteins. Combining these two effects could aid development of new immune-antiretroviral approaches (Journal of Clinical Investigation 2005;115:128).