Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have discovered the mechanism behind an important step in the life cycle of HIV. Working together with teams at Heidelberg and Yale Universities, they found that the enigmatic “spacer peptide 2,” one of the virus components, plays a key role in converting immature HIV-1 particles into infectious particles. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature. HIV-1 particles are released from infected cells in an immature, non-infectious form. The

A new study reveals that a significant proportion of people living with HIV (PWH) on long-term antiretroviral therapy remain at risk of immune and metabolic complications despite successful viral suppression. The findings highlight a pressing need for precision medicine approaches to improve long-term health outcomes for PWH. Researchers from Karolinska Institute, Sweden, in collaboration with Rigshospitalet Copenhagen, used a precision medicine approach, analyzing blood samples from 158 people living with HIV from the Copenhagen Comorbidity Cohort (COCOMO) to better

The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has been a cornerstone of global HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment for over two decades. Pepfar has enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the US, but its future is now uncertain. Public health scholars Eric A. Friedman, Sarah A. Wetter and Lawrence O. Gostin explain Pepfar’s history and impacts, as well as what may lie ahead. The early years Many people today have forgotten the sheer devastation that the AIDS pandemic wrought on the African continent, first spreading