New study from Universite de Montreal and VGTI may lead to improved defensesNew findings from a Université de Montréal and the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI) study, in collaboration with scientists from the NIH and the McGill University Health Center, may soon lead to an expansion of the drug arsenal used to fight HIV. The Canada-U.S. study published today in the journal Nature Medicine characterizes the pivotal role of two molecules, PD-1 and IL-10, in influencing the function of CD4/T-helper cells and altering their ability to fight HIV."Our findings show that the membrane protein PD-1 is up-regulated during HIV infection by the release of bacterial products from the gut and this subsequently increases the production of a cell derived factor, IL-10 that paralyses the immune system ," says senior author Dr. Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, a professor at the Université de Montréal, researcher at the Centre de Recherche du CHUM and scientific director of