Washington Blade - August 19, 2005

LONDON (AP) - A new treatment strategy has shown promise in helping to transform HIV into a curable infection. Preliminary research published last week in the Lancet medical journal outlines how scientists used an anti-convulsant drug to awaken dormant HIV hiding in the body, where it is temporarily invisible but still dangerous. HIV infection is incurable because current drugs work only when the virus is multiplying, which occurs only when it is in an active cell. However, HIV sometimes infects dormant cells; when it does, it becomes dormant itself. While the virus poses no threat in its resting state, the sleeping cells sporadically wake up, reactivating the virus and causing it to multiply. Only if every last infected dormant cell is wiped out - or the virus is purged from these cells - can patients stop taking medication and be virus-free, experts say. Over the past few years, a handful of drugs have been shown to decrease the size of the dormant HIV pool, but they were subsequently abandoned because their effect was either too weak or the side effects too toxic. The latest drug, valproic acid, shows more promise, said Dr. Warner Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute for Virology & Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Sheep study could help explain human sexual orientation

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) - Researchers at Oregon State University think new studies showing that about 8 percent of rams are "male-oriented" have the potential to help explain sexual orientation in other mammals, including humans. The findings, by researchers at Oregon State, Oregon Health & Science University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sheep Experiment Station, suggest that homosexuality may be biologically driven, a hot topic in the perennial "nature vs. nurture" debate. "We're after a basic biological understanding of how the brain works, and the neurons that drive sexual behavior," said Fred Stormshak, professor of animal science at Oregon State, and an investigator on the project. The study began in 1995, when researchers at the federal Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, noticed that some rams refused to mate with female sheep. The researchers found marked differences in the brain anatomy and hormones between male- and female-oriented rams, Stormshak said.

Studies in Scotland, Australia show spike in syphilis cases among gay men

GLASGOW - Newly reported figures reveal that syphilis, which can be fatal if left untreated, has increased 14-fold among gay men in Scotland since 2001, the Sunday Herald reported. Australian researchers also reported a rise in cases of syphilis among gay men. More than a dozen cases of the sexually transmitted disease were logged in Scotland in 2001, while 186 such cases were recorded last year. Most of those were in Glasgow and Lothian. Health leaders said the disease is on the rise primarily among gay men, who may be having unprotected sex and spreading syphilis, the Herald reported. In Australia, a medical study shows that syphilis is at epidemic levels among gay men in Sydney, ABC reported. The Medical Journal of Australia published a report showing a 10-fold rise in syphilis cases since 2000, mostly among men who are HIV positive. Associate professor Andrew Grulich, co-author of the report, noted that syphilis also is contracted via oral sex, which many people consider safe.

Little known retrovirus jumps from primate to man for first time

BALI, Indonesia (AP) - The monkey temples on the resort island of Bali are a perfect photo op for tourists feeding bananas to man's closest relative, but most visitors are likely unaware they're at risk of contracting a little-known retrovirus recently found to jump from primates to people in Asia. Simian foamy virus, called SFV, has not been known to cause disease, but a recent study triggers questions about its potential to possibly sicken people in the future just as scientists believe HIV evolved decades after it jumped species. In a study conducted at a popular monkey temple in Bali, lead researcher Lisa Jones-Engel of the University of Washington's National Primate Research Center in Seattle sampled 82 people working in or near the Sangeh temple just north of Denpasar. One farmer, who was bitten and scratched by macaques, tested positive for SFV, becoming Asia's first known case. "This is really a marker," Jones-Engel said. "The virus itself doesn't give us complications right now, but it speaks to the context and the mechanisms for transmission."

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