1
|
Jespersen S, Månsson F, Lindman J, Wejse C, Medina C, da Silva ZJ, Te D, Medstrand P, Esbjörnsson J, Hønge BL. HIV treatment in Guinea-Bissau: room for improvement and time for new treatment options. AIDS Res Ther 2020; 17:3. [PMID: 32019545 PMCID: PMC6998355 DOI: 10.1186/s12981-020-0259-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2019] [Accepted: 01/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite advances in the treatment quality of HIV throughout the world, several countries are still facing numerous obstacles in delivering HIV treatment at a sufficiently high quality, putting patients' lives in jeopardy. The aim of this status article is to give an overview of HIV treatment outcomes in the West African country, Guinea-Bissau, and to assess how newer treatment strategies such as long-acting injectable drugs or an HIV cure may limit or stop the HIV epidemic in this politically unstable and low-resource setting. Several HIV cohorts in Guinea-Bissau have been established and are used as platforms for epidemiological, virological, immunological and clinical studies often with a special focus on HIV-2, which is prevalent in the country. The Bandim Health Project, a demographic surveillance site, has performed epidemiological HIV surveys since 1987 among an urban population in the capital Bissau. The Police cohort, an occupational cohort of police officers, has enabled analyses of persons seroconverting with estimated times of seroconversion among HIV-1 and HIV-2-infected individuals, allowing incidence measurements while the Bissau HIV Cohort and a newer Nationwide HIV Cohort have provided clinical data on large numbers of HIV-infected patients. The HIV cohorts in Guinea-Bissau are unique platforms for research and represent real life in many African countries. Poor adherence, lack of HIV viral load measurements, inadequate laboratory facilities, high rates of loss to follow-up, mortality, treatment failure and resistance development, are just some of the challenges faced putting the goal of "90-90-90″ for Guinea-Bissau well out of reach by 2020. Maintaining undetectable viral loads on treatment as a prerequisite of a cure strategy seems not possible at the moment. Thinking beyond one-pill-once-a-day, long-acting antiretroviral treatment options such as injectable drugs or implants may be a better treatment option in settings like Guinea-Bissau and may even pave the way for an HIV cure. If the delivery of antiretroviral treatment in sub-Saharan Africa in a sustainable way for the future should be improved by focusing on existing treatment options or through focusing on new treatment options remains to be determined.
Collapse
|
2
|
Esbjörnsson J, Jansson M, Jespersen S, Månsson F, Hønge BL, Lindman J, Medina C, da Silva ZJ, Norrgren H, Medstrand P, Rowland-Jones SL, Wejse C. HIV-2 as a model to identify a functional HIV cure. AIDS Res Ther 2019; 16:24. [PMID: 31484562 PMCID: PMC6727498 DOI: 10.1186/s12981-019-0239-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Two HIV virus types exist: HIV-1 is pandemic and aggressive, whereas HIV-2 is confined mainly to West Africa and less pathogenic. Despite the fact that it has been almost 40 years since the discovery of AIDS, there is still no cure or vaccine against HIV. Consequently, the concepts of functional vaccines and cures that aim to limit HIV disease progression and spread by persistent control of viral replication without life-long treatment have been suggested as more feasible options to control the HIV pandemic. To identify virus-host mechanisms that could be targeted for functional cure development, researchers have focused on a small fraction of HIV-1 infected individuals that control their infection spontaneously, so-called elite controllers. However, these efforts have not been able to unravel the key mechanisms of the infection control. This is partly due to lack in statistical power since only 0.15% of HIV-1 infected individuals are natural elite controllers. The proportion of long-term viral control is larger in HIV-2 infection compared with HIV-1 infection. We therefore present the idea of using HIV-2 as a model for finding a functional cure against HIV. Understanding the key differences between HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections, and the cross-reactive effects in HIV-1/HIV-2 dual-infection could provide novel insights in developing functional HIV cures and vaccines.
Collapse
|
3
|
Mbondji-wonje C, Dong M, Wang X, Zhao J, Ragupathy V, Sanchez AM, Denny TN, Hewlett I. Distinctive variation in the U3R region of the 5' Long Terminal Repeat from diverse HIV-1 strains. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0195661. [PMID: 29664930 PMCID: PMC5903597 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 03/27/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Functional mapping of the 5’LTR has shown that the U3 and the R regions (U3R) contain a cluster of regulatory elements involved in the control of HIV-1 transcription and expression. As the HIV-1 genome is characterized by extensive variability, here we aimed to describe mutations in the U3R from various HIV-1 clades and CRFs in order to highlight strain specific differences that may impact the biological properties of diverse HIV-1 strains. To achieve our purpose, the U3R sequence of plasma derived virus belonging to different clades (A1, B, C, D, F2) and recombinants (CRF02_AG, CRF01_AE and CRF22_01A1) was obtained using Illumina technology. Overall, the R region was very well conserved among and across different strains, while in the U3 region the average inter-strains nucleotide dissimilarity was up to 25%. The TAR hairpin displayed a strain-distinctive cluster of mutations affecting the bulge and the loop, but mostly the stem. Like in previous studies we found a TATAA motif in U3 promoter region from the majority of HIV-1 strains and a TAAAA motif in CRF01_AE; but also in LTRs from CRF22_01A1 isolates. Although LTRs from CRF22_01A1 specimens were assigned CRF01_AE, they contained two NF-kB sites instead of the single TFBS described in CRF01_AE. Also, as previously describe in clade C isolates, we found no C/EBP binding site directly upstream of the enhancer region in CRF22_01A1 specimens. In our study, one-third of CRF02_AG LTRs displayed three NF-kB sites which have been mainly described in clade C isolates. Overall, the number, location and binding patterns of potential regulatory elements found along the U3R might be specific to some HIV-1 strains such as clade F2, CRF02_AG, CRF01_AE and CRF22_01A1. These features may be worth consideration as they may be involved in distinctive regulation of HIV-1 transcription and replication by different and diverse infecting strains.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christelle Mbondji-wonje
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Biomedical sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon
- * E-mail: (CM); (IH)
| | - Ming Dong
- U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Silver Spring, Maryland United States of America
| | - Xue Wang
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Jiangqin Zhao
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Viswanath Ragupathy
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Ana M. Sanchez
- Department of Medicine, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States
| | - Thomas N. Denny
- Department of Medicine, Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States
| | - Indira Hewlett
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America
- * E-mail: (CM); (IH)
| |
Collapse
|