"Prevention is better than Cure"==>> All about health

Am I back to the college days, and attending the Bio lectures.... Which I never understood anything, same like this airtcle !!

Hope it is helful to someone, would have loved to read about the prevention !!

saimans wrote:

Am I back to the college days, and attending the Bio lectures.... Which I never understood anything, same like this airtcle !!

Hope it is helful to someone, would have loved to read about the prevention !!

This post is a research update on the possibilities of prevention or cure of deadly/ stigma producing diseases like HIV/Ebola. Well, I hope they would be able to create vaccine out of this TIM protein..if not then a promising antiviral medicine would do.

"The expression of TIM proteins by activated T cells in various pathogenic settings has opened up the possibility that targeting these proteins may inhibit or augment immune responses, depending upon the clinical situation. Clearly, in vitro and murine in vivo studies have revealed that targeting TIM protein function can modulate immune responses. There are still limited in vitro studies with human cells, but these have also shown promise, particularly in the case of TIM-3, as discussed above. Modulating the function of TIM proteins through traditional protein drug approaches, i.e. use of blocking antibodies or soluble receptors, may be complicated by the fact that TIM:ligand interactions are somewhat promiscuous (Fig. 2). Also, the ability of different TIM antibodies or even concentrations of ligand to differentially affect activation of different subsets of T cells (and possibly other cell types), is a potential concern for future use in patients. A cautionary tale in this regard is the recent clinical experience with a super-agonist monoclonal antibody specific for CD28. Thus, while such antibodies functioned in pre-clinical models to preferentially expand regulatory T cells, at the expense of effector T cells, they were actually quite effective at activating memory/effector T cells in humans, resulting in a potentially fatal cytokine storm (49).

Regarding the normal functions of TIM-1 and TIM-3 in immunity, it will be necessary to more clearly define the requirements for binding of each putative and confirmed ligand, as well as to determine the identity of specific ligands (if any) for the mucin domains of these proteins. It will also be important to obtain a better understanding of the effects of TIM-1 and TIM-3 ligation on downstream signaling pathways that either enhance or inhibit leukocyte activation."

lol another big lecture !!

sheene wrote:

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/researchers-discover-proteins-block-both-hiv-and-ebola-virus-release

Researchers Discover Proteins That Block Both HIV And Ebola Virus Release

August 26, 2014 | by Justine Alford


In an unexpected twist, a family of proteins that have been found to promote HIV-1 entry into cells also potently block viral release. Interestingly, these proteins were also found to inhibit the release of other viruses, including Ebola virus. These intriguing new findings provide us with novel insights into both viral infection and the development of AIDS, which could ultimately lead to new antiviral strategies. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Viruses are unable to replicate by themselves and thus must hijack a host cells machinery in order to do so. To get inside host cells, HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, needs to bind to receptors found on target cells. This triggers a series of events that ultimately lead to viral entry; once inside, HIV converts the cell into a factory for making more viruses.

Recent studies have identified a family of proteins, called TIM proteins, which play critical roles in facilitating the entry of various viruses including Ebola, West Nile and dengue viruses. Intriguingly, University of Missouri researchers have now discovered that these proteins not only promote HIV-1 entry into host cells, but they also prevent viral release.

For the study, scientists investigated the interactions between HIV-1 and TIM proteins using various molecular, biochemical and microscopic techniques. They found that as HIV-1 begins to bud from, or escape, the host cell, TIM proteins become incorporated into the virions and tether the particles to the cellular membrane. This is mediated through interactions with a lipid called phosphatidylserine (PS) that is found both on the cell membrane and the outside of the virus particles. Usually, PS is expressed on the inside of the cell, but viral infection causes it to flip to the outside, meaning that both PS and TIM are now present on the cell and viral surface. TIM and PS then bind to one another as HIV-1 attempts to escape from the cell, causing the particles to be retained at the cell surface.

Interestingly, the team also discovered that TIM proteins inhibited the release of other viruses, including a mouse virus belonging to the same family as HIV and Ebola virus.

While these discoveries extend our understanding of viral infection, lead researcher Shan-Lu Liu points out that it is not clear at this stage whether HIVs interaction with TIM proteins is a positive or negative factor. However, this discovery furthers our ultimate goal of understanding the biology of TIM-family proteins and potentially developing applications for future antivirus therapies, he says.

Such a great information about the HIV and viruses. 

Note: Avoid some viruses here too

rehanilyas00 wrote:

Note: Avoid some viruses here too

hamudi wrote:

rehanilyas00 wrote:

Note: Avoid some viruses here too

Beware   

sheene wrote:

Beware   

Prevention is better than Cure