Antiretroviral therapy (ART) improves the quality of life for those living with the human immunodeficiency virus type one (HIV-1). However, poor compliance reduces ART effectiveness and leads to immune compromise, viral mutations, and disease co-morbidities. Here we develop a drug formulation in which a lipid-based nanoparticle (LBNP) carrying rilpivirine (RPV) is decorated with the C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) targeting peptide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Life at all scales is surprisingly effective at exploiting new opportunities, as demonstrated by the rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance and novel pathogens. How populations acquire this level of evolvability and the various ways it aids survival are major open questions with direct implications for human health. Here, we use digital evolution to show that changing environments facilitate the simultaneous evolution of high mutation rates and a distribution of mutational effects skewed toward beneficial phenotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses of microbes are ubiquitous biological entities that reprogram their hosts' metabolisms during infection in order to produce viral progeny, impacting the ecology and evolution of microbiomes with broad implications for human and environmental health. Advances in genome sequencing have led to the discovery of millions of novel viruses and an appreciation for the great diversity of viruses on Earth. Yet, with knowledge of only "who is there?" we fall short in our ability to infer the impacts of viruses on microbes at population, community, and ecosystem-scales.
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