Hairy cell leukemia is an uncommon hematologic malignancy characterized by pancytopenia and marked susceptibility to infection. Tremendous progress in the management of patients with this disease has resulted in high response rates and improved survival, yet relapse and an appropriate approach to re-treatment present continuing areas for research. The disease and its effective treatment are associated with immunosuppression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSignificant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) have recently been made. Improved distinction of HCL from its mimics though clinical presentations, morphologic and immunophenotypic features, and more recently molecular biology, has highlighted marked differences in treatment response and overall prognosis between these disorders. As our understanding of the unique pathobiology of HCL has grown, exciting new avenues of treatment as well as insight into immune function have been obtained.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is a severe transfusion reaction that manifests as acute respiratory compromise within 6 hours of the infusion of blood products. Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) is prepared from large pools of human plasma and is commonly administered in the outpatient setting for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. As a plasma-derived blood product, IVIG may also cause TRALI, although reports of this are exceedingly rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The identification and characterization of several interferon (IFN)-induced cellular HIV-1 restriction factors, defined as host cellular proteins or factors that restrict or inhibit the HIV-1 life cycle, have provided insight into the IFN response towards HIV-1 infection and identified new therapeutic targets for HIV-1 infection. To further characterize the mechanism underlying restriction of the late stages of HIV-1 replication, we assessed the ability of IFNbeta-induced genes to restrict HIV-1 Gag particle production and have identified a potentially novel host factor called HECT domain and RCC1-like domain-containing protein 5 (HERC5) that blocks a unique late stage of the HIV-1 life cycle.
Results: HERC5 inhibited the replication of HIV-1 over multiple rounds of infection and was found to target a late stage of HIV-1 particle production.