PLGA-PEG-NHS and mPEG-PLGA from PolySciTech used in development of targeted HIV therapy

HIV is a viral disease which attacks the immune system however targeted therapy can be applied to aid the immune system in fighting the virus which, along with anti-retroviral drugs, may present the potential to cure HIV. Recently, researchers at Creighton University used mPEG-PLGA (AK107) and PLGA-PEG-NHS (AI111) in development of anti-HIV nanoparticles. Read more: Mandal, Subhra, Shawnalyn W. Sunagawa, Pavan Kumar Prathipati, Michael Belshan, Annemarie Shibata, and Christopher J. Destache. "Targeted immuno-antiretroviral HIV therapeutic approach to provide dual protection and boosts cellular immunity: A proof-of-concept study." bioRxiv (2020). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.20.050849v1.abstract

“Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected active and latent CCR5 expressing long-lived T-cells are the primary barrier to HIV/AIDS eradication. Broadly neutralizing antibodies and latency-reversing agents are the two most promising strategies emerging to achieve ‘functional cure’ against HIV infection. Antiretrovirals (ARVs) have shown to suppress plasma viral loads to non-detectable levels and above strategies have demonstrated a ‘functional cure’ against HIV infection is achievable. Both the above strategies are effective at inducing direct or immune-mediated cell death of latent HIV+ T-cells but have shown respective limitations. In this study, we designed a novel targeted ARVs-loaded nanoformulation that combines the CCR5 monoclonal antibody and antiretroviral drugs (ARV) as a dual protection strategy to promote HIV ‘functional cure’. The modified CCR5 monoclonal antibody (xfR5 mAb) surface-coated dolutegravir (DTG) and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) loaded nanoformulation (xfR5-D+T NPs) were uniformly sized