…lead a team that will walk the walk.

Join us as a TEAM LEADER in the
First Annual “Walk the Walk” team event at AIDS Walk Los Angeles!

We invite you to walk the walk for a cure in the 2009 Los Angeles AIDS Walk, on Sunday, October 18, 2009. As Community Partner, all funds raised by our teams go directly to support ARA's innovative, independent research. Your leadership will make this event successful and fun.

We're recruiting 10 more TEAM LEADERS!

TEAM LEADER Recruitment & Orientation Kick-Off
Wednesday, August 5th 2009
7:00 pm
AIDS Research Alliance
1400 S. Grand Ave., Suite 701
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Join us for refreshments and learn more about what it take to become a Walk the Walk Team LeaderAt the Kick-Off , you’ll get all the info about how you can lead a team on a successful AIDS Walk. We’ll show you how to build an involved and active team of friends and family. We’ll also tell you about some great incentive prizes! Even if you're just interested in walking with our teams, please join us at this fun mixer.

For More Information on please call Gwendolyn Martin @ 310.358.2423
or go to ARA's Walk the Walk event page:

  July 2009

 Dear Friend,

In our upcoming issue of Searchlight express, we'll explain how new anti-HIV drugs are created. From beginning to end, the drug development process is as exciting as it is challenging. Currently, AIDS Research Alliance advances research in almost every stage of the process, and we're sure this overview will help you appreciate the scope—and cost—of our research. If you aren't on the mailing list, click here to make sure you get a copy.

Before we explain how drugs are developed, it'll be first helpful for us to explain to you how HIV infects a healthy cell and produces new copies of itself. In the article below, we'll show you the steps HIV uses, show you how current anti-HIV drugs are able to thwart HIV and how scientists decide what HIV targets to attack.

With best wishes,

Pinpointing The HIV Reservoir

There's been a breakthrough in the quest for HIV reservoir eradication. In the upcoming issue of Nature Medicine, Canadian and US scientists prove for the first time where HIV hides when it's under attack from anti-retroviral drugs.

HIV remains despite drug therapy
So far, anti-HIV drugs manage to keep HIV at very low levels in the body.  But they are unable to get rid of the virus completely.  Scientists have been searching for the reservoirs where the virus could hide. Now, they believe they have found them.

So, where is HIV hiding?

As AIDS Research Alliance hypothesized when it first began researching reservoir busting strategies, HIV hides in a cell that can remain in your body for the rest of your life. It's a very important cell in the immune system. This is the kind of cells that are called memory T-cells. They are the cells that carry the memory of seeing an infectious disease.

jWhen a person is vaccinated against a particular disease, these memory T-cells remember how to respond if that pathogen is somehow introduced into the body. They then launch a very specific attack. But, they are also the perfect hiding place for HIV.

Assumptions were wrong
“Everybody went with the assumption that by using more and more potent drugs that target the virus that we were going to be able to get rid of it. And in fact what we found is that that will never work," states Dr. Rafick-Pierre Sékaly of the University of Montreal.

A Different Approach
He says a different approach targeting not the virus, but the cells in which the virus is hiding, is needed to eliminate the virus.

The team of Canadian and U.S. researchers found that treating HIV/AIDS with a combination of antiviral drugs and chemotherapy seems to destroy both the circulating virus and immune cells in which the virus hides.

Their results made them try a strategy similar to the one used against leukemia, which is targeted chemotherapy, associated with a targeted immune treatment. This approach may make it possible to destroy the cells containing a virus while giving the immune system time to regenerate with healthy cells.

THE HIV LIFE CYCLE

Getting In
Entry of HIV into the cell is a three-step process


• 2 proteins on HIV’s surface (gp120, gp41) bind with molecules (CD4, CCR5, CXCR4) on the surface of the T-cell that act as powerful receptors for HIV, allowing the virus to attach itself.
• The HIV gp120 protein attaches to the T-cell receptor CD4, then the gp41 protein binds to another either CXCR4 or CCR5. Imagine HIV is using one hand (gp120) to grab the doorknob (CD4) and another hand (gp41) to unlock the door (CXCR4/CCR5).
• Once attached, HIV fuses with the cell by piercing its surface and releasing its RNA inside the cell.

Taking Over

Once HIV’s RNA is inside the cell, it undergoes reverse transcription to convert into DNA, the form of genetic information that is recognized by the T-cell with the help of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase.
Next, the new DNA enters the host cell nucleus where it is integrated into the genetic material of the cell with the help of the enzyme integrase.
The new DNA now can either to remain in a dormant – or latent – state inside the cell for many years, forming reservoirs of hidden virus, or
It uses the cell's own machinery of producing proteins to start making viral proteins and RNA needed for another generation of HIV

Putting it Together
When first synthesized by the cell, the viral proteins are joined together forming a large molecule that must be cut down to proper size to make new viruses. The HIV enzyme protease is necessary for this cutting process.
The new viral RNA and proteins are ready to be assembled.
Afterward, the new HIV burst out of the host cell (budding) and invade new cells, continuing the infection.

Unless the HIV lifecycle is interrupted, viral infection spreads throughout the entire body. HIV can make 100 million virus particles each day in patients with fairly advanced HIV disease. When HIV kills enough of T-cells, the body’s immune system can no longer function effectively, and the body is incapable of combating various types of deadly infections and cancers.

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