Effect of immunization with a common recall antigen on viral expression in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1
Article Abstract:
The activation of the immune system caused by common infectious organisms could increase the risk of contracting HIV infection. Of 16 HIV-positive men, 13 were vaccinated with tetanus toxoid and three received a sham vaccine. Analysis of blood samples after vaccination revealed that the level of HIV in the blood increased significantly within 28 days of vaccination but only in those who received the tetanus vaccine. Ten of the 13 people who received the tetanus vaccine also had higher levels of infected blood mononuclear cells. Lymph node biopsies from two men who had a biopsy before and after vaccination revealed that HIV RNA increased in the samples after vaccination. It also became much easier to isolate HIV from blood mononuclear cells taken from men who received tetanus toxoids, but not in those who received a sham vaccine. Blood mononuclear cells from 7 healthy people who received the tetanus vaccine were more easily infected with HIV.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1996
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Brief report: myeloma-associated paraprotein directed against the HIV-1 p24 antigen in an HIV-1-seropositive patient
Article Abstract:
A 30-year-old HIV-positive man with multiple myeloma appeared to have a paraprotein directed specifically against the HIV-1 p24 antigen. Paraprotein refers to a normal or abnormal blood protein that develops in excess as a result of disease. Multiple myeloma appears to be uncommon among HIV patients, but there have been reports of myeloma-associated paraproteins in HIV patients. p24 antigen is a protein on the surface of HIV. Several tests indicated that the paraprotein in this man was directed against the p24 antigen. p24 antigen is usually present in the blood soon after infection with HIV-1 and before the immune system responds. Along with previous studies that found myeloma-associated paraproteins directed against infectious agents such as bacteria, this finding suggests that the patient's myeloma may have developed as a response to the p24 antigen in the blood.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1993
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HIV versus cytotoxic T lymphocytes - the war being lost
Article Abstract:
Researchers are still trying to find out how the AIDS virus evades the immune system. Two studies have shown that the first immune response to HIV infection, even before antibody production, is a reaction of CD8 T cells to the viral envelope. The virus can mutate but the immune system has a very large repertoire and can often adapt. Some researchers think this eventually exhausts the immune system, but an additional factor may be the loss of CD4 T cells. These cells are thought to assist the CD8 cells, but they are the very cells HIV infects. HIV also affects antigen-presenting cells, which could further interfere with the immune response to the virus.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1997
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- Abstracts: Mapping of a new immunodominant human linear B-cell epitope on the vpu protein of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1
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