Human gammaherpesviruses viraemia in HIV infected patients

Silver nanoparticles selectively induce human oncogenic γ-herpesvirus-related cancer cell death through reactivating viral lytic replication

Silver nanoparticle (nAg), which is one of the most common manufactured nanomaterials, has a wide range of biomedical applications. The human oncogenic γ-herpesviruses, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), are etiologically linked to many malignancies. Currently, there are no efficient or specific treatments for these types of tumors, and most patients die because of resistance to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. Despite nAg having antitumor and antiviral activities, its effects on oncogenic herpesvirus-related cancer cells remain largely unknown. Here, we reveal that nAg presents higher cytotoxicity against KSHV- or EBV-latently infected cells via reactivating viral lytic replication, which relies on the induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and autophagy. Moreover, nAg blocks KSHV primary infection by directly destroying virion particles, as well as effectively inhibits colony formation and moderately represses the growth of KSHV-associated tumors in xenograft mouse model. Taken together, these results demonstrate the therapeutic potential of nAg for use in the antiviral infection and treatment of oncogenic herpesvirus-related cancers.

CD4/CD8 ratio and CD8 counts predict CD4 response in HIV-1-infected drug naive and in patients on cART

Plasma HIV viral load is related to declining CD4 lymphocytes. The extent to which CD8 cells, in addition to RNA viral load, predict the depletion of CD4 cells is not well characterized so far. We examine if CD8 cell count is a prognostic factor for CD4 cell counts during an HIV infection.A longitudinal analysis is conducted using data from the Swiss HIV cohort study collected between January 2000 and October 2014. Linear mixed regression models were applied to observations from HIV-1-infected treatment naive patients (NAIVE) and cART-treated patients to predict the short-term evolution of CD4 cell counts. For each subgroup, it was quantified to which extent CD8 cell counts or CD4/CD8 ratios are prognostic factors for disease progression.In both subgroups, 2500 NAIVE and 8902 cART patients, past CD4 cells are positively (P < 0.0001) and past viral load is negatively (P < 0.0001) associated with the outcome. Including additionally past CD8 cell counts improves the fit significantly (P < 0.0001) and increases the marginal explained variation 31.7% to 40.7% for the NAIVE and from 44.1% to 50.7% for the cART group. The past CD4/CD8 ratio (instead of the past CD8 level) is positively associated with the outcome, increasing the explained variation further to 41.8% for NAIVE and 51.9% for cART.