Projects

Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Currently, HIV-infected patients are treated with combination antiretroviral therapy, able to reduce the viral load but not to cure HIV infections. Therefore, multiple cure strategies are under investigation. However, the major barrier to cure HIV infection is the persistence of ...

The aim is to characterize in depth the dynamic aspects of the latent HIV reservoir in patients whohave the virus. It is this latent HIV reservoir (i.e. a set of cells in which the virus "sleeps" but is inaccessible to antiviral drugs) that is the main obstacle to the cure of HIV/AIDS.  The approach is to compare the behaviour of this reservoir in two groups of patients with HIV, one group who have received treatment for a short time and ...

HIV Drug Resistance (HIVDR) is rising and antiretroviral treatment (ART) is getting less effective, so people living with HIV (PLHIV) suffer more as they are restricted in their daily abilities. This induces several sustainability threats, touching several SDGs, not only health, but several other SDGs such as education, poverty, gender equality, among others. Root causes need to be determined in order to design leverage points ...

The primary viral reservoir is an extremely small but highly durable population of HIV-1-infected CD4 T cells that persist despite treatment with highly effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) and are responsible for viral rebound once treatment is interrupted. Understanding and characterizing the physiology of these cells will likely be critical to any attempt to successfully target them, but has proven extremely difficult because of their ...

The Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the causative agent of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Nowadays, HIV patients are treated with combination antiretroviral therapy which reduces the viral load but does not cure HIV infection. The persistence of integrated viral DNA in a transcriptionally silent mode is a major barrier to cure HIV infection. However, multiple strategies for an HIV cure are being ...

HIV Drug Resistance (HIVDR) is rising and antiretroviral treatment (ART) is getting less effective, so people living with HIV (PLHIV) suffer more as they are restricted in their daily abilities. This induces several sustainability threats, touching several SDGs, not only health, but several other SDGs such as education, poverty, gender equality, among others. Root causes need to be determined in order to design leverage points to counteract ...

Background Due to advanced antiretroviral therapy (ART), the life expectancy of people living with human immunodeficiency virus [HIV, (PLWH)] is approaching that of the general population, and the burden of comorbidities such as cardiometabolic disorders (CMD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are increasing. Apart from the ageing factor, compared with the general population, PLWH have higher risks to develop CMD and CVD ...

To date, 38 million people worldwide have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Antiretroviral therapy can suppress HIV-1 replication and prevent the onset of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Treatment is lifelong as the virus reappears from reservoirs after interruption of therapy. Understanding the interactions between the host and the viral proteins during the replication cycle is vital to develop ...

Antiretroviral therapy -the current gold standard in HIV treatment- fails to provide a definitive cure. However, cell therapies for HIV are increasingly gaining ground, with the use of Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) being widely explored. CAR-T cell therapies have been successfully applied in oncology, particularly in hematologic malignancies, reaching up to 90% remission. In infectious diseases, all previously explored CAR-based ...