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SUMMARY:What feline immunodeficiency virus can teach us about HIV - Mauro 
 Pistello\, Retrovirus Center and Virology Section\, University of Pisa
DTSTART:20100602T153000Z
DTEND:20100602T163000Z
UID:TALK24753@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Suzy Blows
DESCRIPTION:The feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus simila
 r to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that undergoes persistent infectio
 n and causes an AIDS-like disease in domestic cats. FIV is sensitive to mo
 st HIV drugs and evades immune surveillance through mechanisms similar to 
 those exploited by HIV. Thus\, FIV and its natural host\, the domestic cat
 \, are considered a reliable model to develop new antiretrovirals and desi
 gn novel approaches to vaccinate against lentiviruses.\nThe FIV animal mod
 el has been extensively used for vaccine studies and attempts to develop a
 n effective FIV vaccine have met with difficulties similar to those encoun
 tered with AIDS vaccines. Suboptimal immunogenicity\, inadequate antigen p
 resentation\, and inappropriate immune system activation are believed to h
 ave contributed to these disappointing results.\nThis lecture will focus o
 n some recent approaches to improve antigen presentation by making use of 
 autologous FIV-loaded dendritic cells or T-lymphocytes engineered in such 
 a way to mimic FIV-infected cells. Findings\, implications and transferabi
 lity to human AIDS will be discussed.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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