AIDS: How are we doing?

The International AIDS Society (IAS) is meeting on July 29 in Washington D.C. and in preparation, UNAIDS has prepared a report outlining how far we’ve come in terms of therapy and treatment since AIDS first appeared in humans 1981.

The good news is: there is hope. As shown in the chart above, AIDS-related deaths have decreased since 2005 in response to the increased use of antiretroviral drugs, but there remains a long road ahead.

As reported by The Economist, recent research shows that these drugs can also stop the spread of the virus from person to person, and a big topic of discussion at the IAS meeting will be how best to deploy them to do just that. 

The HIV virus

Newly forming HIV virions

This beautiful piece of awesome appears on the cover of the June 2012 edition of PLoS Pathogens and shows “newly forming HIV virions in the leading edge of dynamic filopedia”, as published here.

Specifically, the paper was looking at ways HIV is able to transfer between dendritic and CD4 T immune cells, aiding in the progression of the viral infection.

By using live dynamic imaging of HIV infected dendritic cells, they found that the viral particles actually hijack projections on the surface of the immune cells (filopodia), thereby corrupting the ability of the immune cells to interact.

At the same time, this enables HIV particles to be “launched”, facilitating further infection.

In relation to the above image, what you can see is the incorporation of HIV into dendritic cell filopodia, with HIV particles in white, filopodial networks in red, and the cellular nucleus in blue.

We’re on to you, HIV.

Look at this 3D illustration of HIV.  Who says science isn’t beautiful?

fuckyeahmolecularbiology:

A 3D illustration of HIV.

Source: labspaces.net.

(via somersault1824)