Date: December 5, 2012 By:
Will those hard-working humanized mice help get us to an AIDS vaccine? Scientists are sounding more optimistic.
“Allen led a recent study that caused a small stir in AIDS vaccine research circles. He and his colleagues found that BLT mice infected with HIV mounted cellular immune responses that closely mirrored those observed in HIV-infected humans, and moreover that HIV also escaped from those responses in a manner very similar to natural infection. Finally, Allen and his team found that BLT mice carrying a human immune-related gene associated with enhanced control of viral replication suppressed the virus in a way that was virtually identical to how humans who express that same gene control the virus. Allen said his lab is now looking at the potential to induce human HIV-specific immune responses in the humanized mice through vaccination.”
Dr. Todd Allen featured in VAX magazine article (Dec 2012).
Their findings, to be published in Cell next month, reveal how the virus manipulates immune system processes to avoid destruction by natural killer (NK) cells, a type of white blood cell that is crucial for fighting viral infections.
The lab of the Ragon Institute faculty member Hernandez Moura Silva, PhD, recently published a review in Science Immunology regarding resident tissue macrophages (RTMs), shedding light on their multifaceted roles in organ health.
After three years off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ragon-MIT course HST.434 returned this January to provide 24 students a once in a lifetime learning experience