In this study, the researchers developed nucleic acid-based nanomaterials that can treat HIV by inducing immune activity in HIV-infected patients. It was conducted as joint research between Pukyong National University, Yeungnam University, and Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, and the study appears in the journal Biomaterials in September.  

HIV is a well-known virus that damages the body's immune system and causes AIDS. Various antiviral drugs are prescribed in combination to treat HIV infection, but they have limitations in restoring the immune system and functional treatment of the virus. In this study, the researchers showed the treatment of HIV by nucleic acid-based nanomaterials which elicits the activation of anti-viral immunity. 

The researchers engineered a CpG oligodeoxyribonucleotide (ODN) with multiple hydrophobic moieties, so-called lipid-modified uracil, which resulted in a facile micelle formation of the stimulant. The self-assembled CpG nanostructure (U4CpG) containing the ODN 2216 sequence was promoted activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and natural killer (NK) cells and production of type I interferons (IFNs) and IFN-γ in both healthy donor blood and HIV infected blood. In addition, HIV-1 spread was significantly suppressed by U4CpG. Furthermore, U4CpG elicited transcription of latent HIV indicating that U4CpG reversed HIV latency. 

Prof. Kwak and Jin said, “We have developed a novel nanostructure capable of inducing the activation of immune cells in immune-compromised HIV-infected patients, which resulted in the elimination of HIV”. “This nucleic acid-based nanostructure is expected to be developed as synthetic therapeutics or vaccines against COVID-19 as it can attach various molecules”.

[Reference]  Kim H. et al., (2021) “SCarrier-free micellar CpG interacting with cell membrane for enhanced immunological treatment of HIV-1.” Biomaterials. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121081.

[Main Author] Haejoo Kim (Pukyong National University), Minseok Kwak (GPukyong National University), Jun-O Jin (Yeungnam University)

* Contact email : Professor Minseok Kwak (mkwak@pukyong.ac.kr), Professor Jun-O Jin (jinjo@yu.ac.kr)