A plentiful ingredient found in human semen drastically enhances the ability of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to cause infection, according to a report in the December 14, 2007, issue of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press. The findings help to understand the sexual transmission of HIV and suggest a potential new target for preventing the spread of AIDS, the researchers said.
Two studies led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that people infected with HIV in Thailand die from the disease significantly sooner than those with HIV living in other parts of the world. According to the researchers, the shorter survival time measured in the studies suggests that HIV subtype E, which is the most common HIV subtype in Thailand, may be more virulent than other subtypes of the virus. Both studies are published in a special issue of the journal AIDS.
Researchers from the University of Missouri and Imperial College London have found evidence suggesting why vaccines directed against the virus that causes AIDS and many cancers do not work. This research is being published in the Dec. 14 edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are the first in the U.S. to develop an HIV prevention and intervention program for adolescent runaways that focuses on their strengths.
Scientists have demonstrated a new technique for detecting a painful nerve condition known as neuropathy, which affects millions of people with diabetes and many other patients as well.
Treatment with an investigational drug that induces the release of growth hormone significantly improved the symptoms of HIV lipodystrophy, a condition involving the redistribution of fat and other metabolic changes in patients receiving combination drug therapy for HIV infection. A team led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and McGill University Health Centre found that treatment with tesamorelin, a growth-hormone-releasing factor, significantly reduced deep abdominal fat deposits and improved the metabolic aspects of HIV lipodystrophy in a group of patients with the syndrome. The report of a six-month Phase 3 clinical trial of tesamorelin appears in the December 6 New England Journal of Medicine
This World AIDS Day, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) is celebrating the good news from the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) that the global case count is lower than previous estimates. However, in the United States, this good news is tempered by President Bush’s veto of the annual funding bill that provides resources to fight the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic—programs that have faced stagnant funding throughout the Bush administration despite the continued growth of the epidemic.
Integrating HIV testing programmes into primary medical care can help achieve early diagnosis of HIV infection, even in relatively poor areas, research published in the online open access journal AIDS Research and Therapy has shown.
South Africa's Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Programme has severe shortcomings that could be doing more harm than good. HIV patients are missing out on opportunities to receive a key intervention namely the nevirapine tablet according to a study published in the online open access journal AIDS Research and Therapy.
A recent study of men co-infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) and HIV revealed that drugs used to suppress HSV decrease the levels of HIV in the blood and rectal secretions, which may make patients less likely to transmit the virus. This study is published in the November 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Leading efforts to create an HIV vaccine have hinged on the use of viruses as carriers for selected elements of the HIV virus. Recently, however, evidence has emerged that some of these so-called viral vector systems may undermine the immune system and should not be used for vaccine development. Now, a new study from scientists at The Wistar Institute provides strong support for the idea that some viral-vector vaccines may cause more harm than good.
When a host cell is infected with HIV, the virus brings its own genetic material into the host cell. This cell then replicates, reads the viral RNA, and uses it as a blueprint to produce more viral proteins. Complete viruses are then released to attack the next cells. A team of researchers from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and the University of Washington (USA) has now developed a new potential starting point for a drug that could intervene in this deadly cycle. As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, it involves a hairpin-shaped molecule that imitates the spatial structure of an important viral protein and should thus stop the discharge of viral RNA from the cell nucleus.
A new global study from the M-A-C AIDS Fund, the philanthropic arm of Estee Lauder-owned (NYSE:EL) M-A-C cosmetics, shockingly reveals that after a quarter of a century of HIV and AIDS, nearly half of people still do not view the disease as a deadly affliction. Globally, more then 40 percent of respondents do not understand that AIDS always results in fatality.
Researchers at UCSF and the University of Toronto have identified a potential new way of fighting against HIV infection that relies on the remnants of ancient viruses, human endogenous retroviruses (HERV), which have become part of the genome of every human cell.
In the STEP study, one of two phase II trials of Merck & Co., Inc.'s investigational HIV vaccine (V520), the vaccine was not effective at either preventing infection in volunteers not previously infected with HIV or at reducing viral loads in those study volunteers who became infected with HIV during the trial. Analyses presented today indicate that in those volunteers with pre-existing immunity to the cold virus used as a carrier for synthetic HIV genes in the vaccine, there were more infections in those volunteers who received the vaccine than in those who received placebo. Most of these analyses are considered exploratory in nature, and the reasons for this result are still being studied. The study was co-sponsored by Merck & Co., Inc.; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), which is funded by NIAID.
The new analyses revealed today from the STEP HIV vaccine clinical trial are both disappointing and puzzling. At this time, the data offer no clear explanations as to why the vaccine showed no measurable efficacy or why among individuals with background immunity to the adenovirus vector, there were more HIV infections in the vaccinees as compared to those in the placebo group. Analyses of the STEP data are continuing, and it will take some time before we fully understand these results
The largely unnoticed collision of the global epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) has exploded to create a deadly co-epidemic that is rapidly spreading in sub-Saharan Africa. However, health systems cannot adequately diagnose, treat, or contain the co-epidemic due to unanswered scientific and medical questions, according to a report issued today by The Forum for Collaborative HIV Research and amplified by experts from leading global health organizations.
What: Viral load—the amount of virus in the blood of an HIV-infected person—has long been viewed as the chief indicator of how quickly someone infected with HIV infection progresses to AIDS. New data published in Nature Immunology builds on previous work that suggests that several other factors in addition to viral load significantly contribute to disease progression rates.
In a review of the scientific literature on the relationship between stress and disease, Carnegie Mellon University psychologist Sheldon Cohen has found that stress is a contributing factor in human disease, and in particular depression, cardiovascular disease and HIV/AIDS. Cohen’s findings will be published in the Oct. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The article was co-authored by Denise Janicki-Deverts of Carnegie Mellon and Gregory E. Miller of the University of British Columbia
People with medium levels of HIV in their blood are likely to contribute most to the spread of the virus, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Dan Gewirth, Hauptman-Woodward senior research scientist, has just solved the structure of the first mammalian GRP94 protein implicated in immune diseases such as sepsis, AIDS and certain cancers.
A synergistic combination of available nosocomial* infection control strategies could prevent nearly half of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis cases, even in resource-limited settings.
It was hoped that as HIV treatment improved and as HIV-related public health initiatives encouraged people to be tested for the disease and seek care, that HIV-infected patients would seek care quickly. Unfortunately, a new study indicates that patients are actually sicker when they begin therapy.
Not long ago, organ transplantation was not considered an option for HIV infected patients. However, in recent years, new clinical approaches have led to good outcomes in the growing number of HIV-positive patients who need kidney and liver transplants. Recent developments in organ transplantation for patients with HIV are summarized in Transplantation, the official journal of The Transplantation Society and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, leading global provider of healthcare content, context and consulting.
New findings that one in 20 North Carolina men who have sex with men (MSM) reported using crystal methamphetamine during the previous month suggests increased risk for spreading HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STD), according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.
Non-randomized epidemiological studies have suggested that uncircumcised men may be exposed to a higher risk of infection with the HIV virus after sexual intercourse.
Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients —not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them.
The Internet is serving as a fertile medium for "HIV denialists" to spread false ideas about HIV/AIDS, which could have terrible public health consequences, say scientists in a policy paper in PLoS Medicine.
The media’s message is clear: the AIDS epidemic will be the downfall of families in Africa. A new study by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher calls that an overstatement. Her study shows that AIDS compounds the issue of poverty in households where poverty is already a prevailing issue, especially when a household loses its primary income earner to AIDS.
New evidence reported in Cell Stem Cell, a publication of Cell Press, offers a novel perspective on how the HIV/AIDS virus leads to learning and memory deficits, a condition known as HIV-associated dementia. A protein found on the surface of the virus not only kills some mature brain cells, as earlier studies had shown, but it also prevents the birth of new brain cells by crippling “adult neural progenitors,” the new study finds. Those progenitor cells are the closest thing to stem cells that have been found in the adult brain.
The six weeks that graduate student Tinashe Mudzviti spends at the University at Buffalo this summer could help more than 100,000 people with HIV receive life-saving treatments back in his home country of Zimbabwe.
Programmes that exclusively encourage abstinence from sex do not seem to affect the risk of HIV infection in high income countries, finds a review of the evidence in this week’s BMJ.
A new study, "Influence of body mass index on pregnancy outcomes among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected Zambian women," is now available. According to recent research published in the journal Tropical Medicine & International Health, "To determine the influence of body mass index (BMI) on pregnancy outcomes of HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected Zambian women and to assess the possible role of BMI on mother-to-child transmission rate of HIV. We analysed data from a clinical trial on nevirapine administration for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Lusaka, Zambia."
Nearly 40 percent of repatriated Nepalese sex-trafficked girls and women tested were positive for HIV infection, with girls trafficked before age 15 having higher rates of infection, according to a study in JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
In order to receive US funding for HIV prevention or control projects, recipient organizations must take a pledge that explicitly condemns prostitution. But such condemnation is not effective at helping to control the global HIV epidemic, say researchers in this week's PLoS Medicine.
Two new studies emphasize the importance of delivering measles and influenza vaccines to HIV-infected individuals. Both studies are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Dr. Éric A. Cohen, a researcher at the IRCM (Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal), and his team will publish on Friday, July 13, in PLoS Pathogens a discovery that could lead to the development of a new class of drugs to combat HIV.
UCLA scientists, along with collaborators from Purdue University, have demonstrated that HIV protease inhibitors — crucial drugs for HIV treatment — block a cellular enzyme important for generating the structural scaffolding for the cell nucleus.
Monkey viruses related to HIV may have swept across Africa more recently than previously thought, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson.
Today, the House of Representatives passed the first Financial Services Appropriations bill that does not contain a rider forbidding Washington, D.C. from spending local government funds on District syringe exchange programs since 1998.
Boehringer Ingelheim just sent the 1 millionth mother-child pair supply of Viramune(R) (nevirapine) to Malawi in South East Africa. Since 2000, Boehringer Ingelheim has given free access to single-dose Viramune(R), used alone or in combination with other drugs, to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the HI virus during birth. The first delivery within the Viramune(R) Donation Program (VDP) went to Congo Brazzaville in October 2000. A good pregnancy, natural labour, and a healthy baby is not a given for millions of HIV-positive women and families in developing countries: Mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) accounts for at least 90 percent of all HIV infections in children worldwide. But the risk can be reduced considerably, given appropriate intervention.
A growing number of drug-resistant strains of HIV are a threat to the effectiveness of current treatments despite anti-HIV drug cocktails decreasing the number of HIV-related deaths and improving the quality of life for HIV patients. Existing methods of detecting drug-resistant forms of HIV are expensive, time consuming, and often fail to identify small populations of drug-resistant HIV. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed a drug resistance screening method that analyzes multiple HIV variants at the same time, while also saving time and money.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have patented a strategy for developing a human vaccine to prevent against Human Cytomegalovirus (hCMV) infection and disease.
A survey of nearly 700 surgical residents in 17 U.S. medical centers finds that more than half failed to report needle-stick injuries involving patients whose blood could be a source of HIV, hepatitis and other infections.
In PLoS Medicine, Nathan Ford and colleagues from the humanitarian agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; Doctors Without Borders) describe their experience of providing HIV prevention and treatment in two prisons in Thailand.
Rare, previously undetectable drug-resistant forms of HIV have been identified by Yale School of Medicine researcher Michael Kozal, M.D., using an innovative genome sequencing technology that quickly detects rare viral mutations.
In new academic research published today in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE, male circumcision is found to be much less important as a deterrent to the global AIDS pandemic than previously thought. The author, John R. Talbott, has conducted statistical empirical research across 77 countries of the world and has uncovered some surprising results.
Cross-resistance alarms raised earlier this year by Johns Hopkins researchers about a widely used antiviral therapy for hepatitis B liver infections have prompted swift treatment revisions by the drug’s maker and governmental agencies.
More than 2,300 riders and nearly 500 volunteer participants in AIDS/LifeCycle rolled into West Los Angeles Saturday and boisterously celebrated having raised more than $11 million for HIV services and prevention on their 545-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
More than 2,300 riders and nearly 500 volunteer participants in AIDS/LifeCycle rolled into West Los Angeles Saturday and boisterously celebrated having raised more than $11 million for HIV services and prevention on their 545-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently advised health professionals to offer every patient aged 13-64 years “opt-out” HIV testing (i.e. testing without the need for risk assessment and counseling). But a new study by Professor David Holtgrave (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) in this week’s PLoS Medicine finds that testing only those people at high risk of HIV, rather than offering everybody a test, would be a better strategy for diagnosing HIV infections and for helping to stop the spread of the virus. About a quarter of a million people in the US do not realize they are infected with HIV. Because they are unaware of their infection, they don’t get the medicines they need to stay healthy, and they may also be transmitting HIV to others unwittingly. The CDC hopes that its new recommendations on opt-out testing will allow health professionals to reach more of these people.
Congenital syphilis is a major preventable public health problem in many developing countries, frequently causing stillbirths or neonatal death and disabling children who survive. Often undiagnosed or untreated, syphilis is passed from mother to child -- even when mothers take part in prenatal programs to prevent the spread of HIV.
HIV treatment can be delivered even in settings of armed conflict, and humanitarian health agencies should not wait until a conflict is over before launching HIV care programs, say a team from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in PLoS Medicine.
New research conducted at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) suggests that it may be possible to develop a vaccine that protects against the myriad strains of the HIV virus.
A unique joint declaration by AIDS activists, doctors, researchers, pharmaceutical companies and members of regulatory agencies has been issued demanding the urgent development of better treatment options for people co-infected with the HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses.
Heidelberg Pharma AG announced the successful completion of a clinical Phase II study with the developing agent Fosalvudine against HIV/AIDS. The objective of this placebo-controlled, double blind clinical study was to survey the effectiveness, tolerability and pharmacokinetic properties during a treatment period of 14 days.
Australian biotechnology company Avexa (ASX:AVX) announced highly successful results from its Phase IIb trial for apricitabine (ATC). ATC is Avexa's novel nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) being developed for the treatment of HIV infection in patients with drug-resistant HIV.
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) and Celera (NYSE:CRA), an Applera Corporation business, announced that Abbott has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to market the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 viral load test for use on the company's m2000(TM) automated instrument system.
A vaccine that prevents HIV infection remains an important goal in the fight against AIDS, but the current top HIV vaccine candidates may not work in this way, say scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Rather, the first successful preventive HIV vaccines, if administered prior to HIV infection, may reduce HIV levels in the body, thereby delaying the progression to AIDS and the need to start antiretroviral drugs. These vaccines may also reduce the chance that a person infected with HIV would pass the virus on to other people, according to NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and Margaret I. Johnston, Ph.D., director of NIAID’s Vaccine Research Program in the Division of AIDS.
UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have discovered that when a crucial portion of a peptide structure in monkeys that defends against viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders is reversed, the peptide actually encourages infection with HIV.
U.S. and Indian health officials have renewed the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program (VAP), a 20-year-old bilateral collaboration supporting research on vaccines, immunology and related biomedical issues. The VAP aims to reduce the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases of public health significance in India, the United States and other parts of the world, and to promote vaccines as one of the most cost-effective health technologies.
A new joint study by UCLA and the Rand Corp. shows that more than half of children with an HIV-infected parent are not consistently in that parent’s custody.
A major new effort to uncover the medium- and large-scale genetic differences between humans may soon reveal DNA sequences that contribute to a wide range of diseases, according to a paper by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Evan Eichler and 17 colleagues published in Nature. The undertaking will help researchers identify structural variations in DNA sequences, which Eichler says amount to as much as five to ten percent of the human genome.
As Abbott Laboratories concluded its Annual General Meeting today in Chicago, advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US' largest HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider, which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, continued to press Abbott to rollback its punitive drug blacklist against Thailand on six new Abbott medicines and drop its demand that Thailand rescind a compulsory license for a generic version of another blacklisted Abbott drug, Aluvia, in order to access Abbott's version of the lifesaving AIDS drug at a significantly reduced price from the company.
New evidence shows that drug-resistant virus passed from mother-to-child can quickly establish itself in infants’ CD4+ T cells where it can hide for years, likely limiting their options for future treatment. The study is published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Leading HIV experts are alarmed that the government of The Gambia is encouraging citizens living with HIV to stop taking antiretroviral medications in order to try an unproven herbal remedy. The HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) calls on President Yahya Jammeh to cease his unproven claims that the treatment "cures" AIDS.
Many patients diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s and 1990s have survived and now are entering their golden years. AIDs cases among the over-50 crowd reached 90,000 in 2003, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will account for half of all HIV/AIDS cases in the United States by 2015.
Some HIV-infected patients in Uganda who self-paid for their antiretroviral medications experienced interruptions in drug supply due to either financial demands or supply logistical disruptions. These treatment interruptions led to the development of resistance to antiretroviral medications in patients.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found that infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is also associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction or heart attack. While rates of several cardiovascular risk factors were also increased in study participants infected with HIV, the increased incidence of heart attack was beyond what could be explained by risk factor differences. The report will be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and has been released online.
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c54500) has announced the addition of the Espicom Business Intelligence Ltd report: Opportunities and Challenges for Bioequivalent Generic Drugs in Brazil to their offering.
Avexa (ASX:AVX) announced the completion and formalisation of the licensing and collaboration agreement on a CCR5 HIV drug program with TargetDrug of Shanghai on terms as announced on 4 December 2006. Avexa and TargetDrug have already commenced the collaborative phase of the agreement aimed at the identification of new and improved clinical candidates from the program.
An Oakland-based company with years of experience managing AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), Public Health Service Bureau (PHSB), issued a white paper focused on resolving inefficiencies that exist in ADAP management. Company executives were in Washington D.C. last week to address the topic on Capitol Hill.
Michael (last name withheld to protect confidentiality), a 22-year-old homeless client of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Jeff Griffith Youth Center and newly addicted to crystal methamphetamine, is one of a growing number of gay men in Los Angeles who are experimenting with the drug, according to disturbing new preliminary data from the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US' largest provider of HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education, and operator of the largest non-government HIV testing program in California which conducts more than 15,000 HIV tests annually, today lauded the California Assembly Health Committee for its unanimous vote (12/0) in favor of Assembly Bill 682, California's Routine HIV Screening Bill, which will now move on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
A convenient, easy to use, and rapid alternative to blood-based HIV testing may become the new standard for field testing according to a new MUHC study. The study shows that the oral fluid-based OraQuick HIV1/2 test is 100 per cent accurate and patients’ preferred choice.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have been selected to participate in a collaborative initiative to develop a simple, affordable and rapid test to measure the immune systems of people infected with HIV/AIDS in developing countries. The four year CD4 Initiative is conducted under the leadership of Imperial College London with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
HIV-positive people who say religion is an important part of their lives are likely to have fewer sexual partners and engage in high-risk sexual behavior less frequently than other people with the virus that causes AIDS, according to a study issued today by the RAND Corporation.
A new antiretroviral drug to treat HIV has proven extremely effective in a drug trial when combined with an existing treatment, according to an Article published online and in The Lancet.
When HIV-positive mothers breastfeed exclusively, their babies have only a low risk of postnatal infection with HIV. But early introduction of animal milks and solid foods increases HIV transmission risks. This evidence demands a revision of the present UNICEF, WHO, and UNAIDS infant-feeding guidelines, according to an article published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.
A Cornell researcher is working to develop a quick, simple and cheap immune-system test for people in the developing world. It could help HIV/AIDS sufferers in the poorest countries get appropriate treatment to extend their lives, possibly by as much as 10 to 15 years.
Interventions that target individuals with a high risk of contracting HIV have a negligible impact on HIV transmission in the general population, according to a new study of communities in Zimbabwe, published today. The three-year study shows that community-based peer education, free condom distribution, and clinic-based STI treatment and counselling services targeted at female sex workers and their male clients had no impact on HIV incidence in the wider community.
The Directors are pleased to advise that Biotron Limited ('Biotron') has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of BIT225, its lead drug for treatment of HIV. This Phase 1 study is designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetic properties of BIT225 in humans after a single dose.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), adolescents and young adults currently account for fifty percent of new HIV infections on an annual basis. As a result, ongoing research and information on HIV prevention has become a high priority for this age group. Now a new study reveals that helping adolescents manage their emotions may be just as important as providing them with information on the practical side of safe sex in order to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Reductions in the death rate from homicide, HIV disease, unintentional injuries - and among women, heart disease - have contributed to narrowing the life expectancy gap between blacks and whites in the United States, although substantial inequalities and challenges remain, according to a study in JAMA.
We might not think of dentists and dental hygienists as saving lives, but Dr. Gwen Cohen-Brown would beg to differ. An assistant professor of dental hygiene at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), she is on a mission to educate her students and a variety of providers in the metropolitan New York area -- hygienists, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and hospital HIV/AIDS counselors -- to routinely conduct periodontal evaluations and oral cancer and vital sign screenings as well as how to recognize the clinical signs of such systemic diseases as HIV/AIDS.
Scientists have highlighted for the first time the plight of the growing number of older children and adolescents living with undiagnosed HIV and AIDS in Africa. In a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Wellcome Trust researchers claim that delay in recognising this problem means that the needs of this important group are not being met.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced 60 U.S. and international institutions selected as HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) in a newly restructured system of six HIV/AIDS clinical research networks. NIAID expects to fund additional CTUs within the next several months, bringing the total to 73.
New evidence suggests that the risk of HIV transmission may be highest in the early stages of infection. According to a study published in the April 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, early infection accounted for nearly half of all transmission occurrences in an HIV-infected population in the province of Quebec, Canada.
Purdue University researchers will meet with Nigerian officials and health-care professionals this month to introduce a new low-cost technology that would make it possible to perform affordable, widespread medical testing for millions of AIDS victims in Africa. African AIDS patients are caught in a Catch-22: They can't receive antiviral drugs to combat AIDS unless they undergo a required test to detect CD4 cells, which indicate how well a patient's immune system is holding up and how far AIDS has advanced.
A review of existing research confirms that health-care workers should undergo a month of preventive drug treatment if they are exposed to HIV on the job.
HIV prevention research was responsible for the recent revelation that male circumcision can play an important role in protecting men from infection with the deadly virus. But according to a new study funded by an independent coalition of public and private sector scientists and public health leaders, research is hampered by gaps in some areas of research and duplication in others.
Sensational depictions of the so-called “down low” or “DL” lifestyle may unwittingly influence health research and hamper HIV prevention efforts in the African-American community.
Even as the AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles County has shifted largely to Hispanics, primary care practitioners serving this segment of the population often fail to offer either HIV testing or safer sex advice to their patients, according to a new UCLA AIDS Institute study.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider in the United States which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, including 14 healthcare centers in California and Florida, announced that it will petition the United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company, from obtaining FDA permission for the over-the-counter, direct-to-consumer sales of the drug giant's blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra.
The launch of the first large-scale study to evaluate a candidate HIV vaccine on the African continent was announced today by study collaborators in the United States and South Africa. The trial will involve up to 3,000 participants at five sites throughout South Africa and is expected to continue for four years.
Three years ago Mark Kay, MD, PhD, published the first results showing that a biological phenomenon called RNA interference could be an effective gene therapy technique. Since then he has used RNAi gene therapy to effectively shut down the viruses that cause hepatitis and HIV in mice.
Research findings, "CD4 and MHC-I downregulation are conserved in primary HIV-1 Nef alleles from brain and lymphoid tissues, but Pak2 activation is highly variable," are discussed in a new report. "HIV-1 compartmentalization in the CNS has been demonstrated for gag, pol, and env genes. However, little is known about tissue compartmentalization of nef genes and their functional characteristics in brain," researchers in the United States report.
Researchers detail in "Functional p53 signaling in Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus lymphomas: implications for therapy," new data in HIV/AIDS cancer. "The Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV8) is associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) as well as primary effusion lymphomas (PEL). The expression of viral proteins capable of inactivating the p53 tumor suppressor protein has been implicated in KSHV oncogenesis," scientists in the United States report.
Research findings, "Postexposure prophylaxis for HIV in children and adolescents after sexual assault: a prospective observational study in an urban medical center," are discussed in a new report. According to a study from the United States, "We sought to evaluate the tolerability and feasibility of establishing an HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) program at our hospital using the guidelines for children and adolescents after sexual assault. This study was a prospective, nonrandomized observational study conducted from March 1999 until September 2002."
New research, "Transcranial sonography of the third ventricle and cognitive dysfunction in HIV patients," is the subject of a report. According to recent research published in the Journal of Neurology, "Although the incidence and prevalence of dementia associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has decreased since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy, cognitive dysfunction remains one of the most prevalent factors severely affecting quality of life in patients with HIV. Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies showed a correlation between brain atrophy, enlargement of the ventricles and cognitive impairment in HIV patients."
Clinical pharmacists have a strong impact on promoting positive clinical outcomes for HIV-infected patients being treated with new regimens of anti-retroviral therapy. Pharmacists also contribute to lower office visit rates for these patients, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears online in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (JAIDS). The study is among the largest analyses of the contribution of clinical pharmacists to clinical outcomes in untreated HIV-infected patients starting highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART).
A new compound has shown promise in halting the spread of HIV by preventing the virus from replicating. Developed by Temple University researchers, 2-5AN6B could someday work as an effective treatment for HIV especially in conjunction with current drug treatments. Their work is published in a recent issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.
New research, "Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus-encoded protein kinase and its interaction with K-bZIP," is the subject of a report. According to recent research from the United States, "The oncogenic herpesvirus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, also identified as human herpesvirus 8, contains genes producing proteins that control transcription and influence cell signaling. Open reading frame 36 (ORF36) of this virus encodes a serine/threonine protein kinase, which is designated the viral protein kinase (vPK)."
Taking daily selenium supplements appears to increase the level of the essential mineral in the blood and may suppress the progression of viral load in patients with HIV infection, according to an article in Archives of Internal Medicine.
Although studies have been undertaken in the past to show the link between sexually transmitted infections and susceptibility to HIV, the study published in a recent issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, available online, is one of the first to demonstrate a statistically significant association between trichomoniasis and HIV infection.
A new study, "Disease progression among HIV-infected children who receive perinatal zidovudine prophylaxis," is now available. According to recent research published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, "Studies of perinatal HIV infection have reported mixed results regarding the prognosis of HIV-infected infants exposed to perinatal zidovudine prophylaxis (PZP). We have followed a population-based cohort of children with perinatal HIV infection to evaluate whether early HIV disease progression was more common among those who received PZP and whether subsequent antiretroviral therapy (ART) was less effective in preventing early disease progression."
amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, has awarded nearly $1 million for eight new research grants and fellowships aimed at increasing understanding and prevention of rectal HIV transmission, Dr. Rowena Johnston, amfAR's vice president of research announced.
Viral Genetics (VRAL) has identified two key peptides involved in its thymus nuclear protein, or TNP, technology under development for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Data detailed in "Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus C-terminal LANA concentrates at pericentromeric and peri-telomeric regions of a subset of mitotic chromosomes" have been presented. According to recent research from the United States, "The Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) tethers KSHV terminal repeat (TR) DNA to mitotic chromosomes to efficiently segregate episomes to progeny nuclei. LANA contains N-and C-terminal chromosome binding regions."
Biotron Limited has presented preclinical efficacy data on its anti-HIV drug BIT225 at HIV DART 2006 in Cancun, Mexico. HIV DART 2006 focused on 'Frontiers in Drug Development for Antiretroviral Therapies' and assembled clinicians, researchers, scientists and pharmaceutical company representatives from around the world. Biotron presented preclinical data showing the antiviral effect of BIT225 in macrophage cells.
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have developed a highly sensitive test for identifying which drug-resistant strains of HIV are harbored in a patient's bloodstream.
New investigation results, "Secretory aspartyl peptidase activity from mycelia of the human fungal pathogen Fonsecaea pedrosoi: effect of HIV aspartyl proteolytic inhibitors," are detailed in a study published in Research In Microbiology. According to recent research from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, "Fonsecaea pedrosoi is the principal causative agent of chromoblastomycosis, which is a chronic, often debilitating, suppurative and granulomatous mycosis. Very little is known about the hydrolytic enzymes produced by this human fungal pathogen."
Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PANC) filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company's second-generation HIV maturation inhibitor, PA-1050040.
International and Uganda AIDS researchers concluded a three-day symposium to identify what works in reducing the AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. Participants included researchers and pioneers of the distinctive behavior-based Ugandan Model. Participants sought to advance understanding of practical, scale-realistic and empirically demonstrated solutions to the AIDS pandemic.
Fresh data on HIV/AIDS are presented in the report "Ritonavir-fluticasone interaction causing Cushing syndrome in HIV-infected children and adolescents. Ritonavir, a potent inhibitor of CYP3A4 enzyme, can lead to high systemic concentrations of fluticasone when these 2 drugs are coadministered. Exogenous Cushing syndrome (CS) in HIV-infected patients receiving ritonavir and fluticasone has been reported frequently in adults but not in children," scientists in the United States report.
Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PANC) announced preliminary results from the first cohort of a Phase IIb study of bevirimat (PA-457) in patients failing HIV therapy due to drug resistance. The data confirm the clinical antiviral activity of bevirimat shown in previous studies; however, the bevirimat plasma concentrations were lower than anticipated, suggesting that the tablet formulation used for this study did not deliver the drug as expected.
Despite the success of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), people with HIV may still be at higher risk for nutritional deficiencies and abnormalities.
Researchers detail in "Carotid intimal medial thickness in human immunodeficiency virus-infected women: effects of protease inhibitor use, cardiac risk factors, and the metabolic syndrome," new data in HIV/AIDS. "Little is known regarding carotid intimal medial thickness (IMT) in HIV-infected women and the risk factors for subclinical atherosclerosis in this population, including antiretroviral therapy and the metabolic syndrome. Our objective was to assess carotid IMT in relationship to HIV status and antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected women in comparison with healthy age-and body mass index (BMI)-matched control subjects," scientists in the United States report.
When it comes to an immune response against HIV, research funded by the Wellcome Trust in the U.K. and the U.S. National Institutes of Health in the U.S. has found that bigger is not necessarily better, contrary to conventional medical wisdom. The research may have a profound impact on the development of a vaccine against the disease.
An effective response of the immune system's 'killer' T cells against infection with HIV may depend on exactly which viral protein is targeted, according to an international group of researchers. A new study finds that HIV-infected individuals in whom virus-specific CD8 T cells are targeted against the Gag protein have lower viral levels than do those with CD8 responses directed against other viral proteins.
University of Utah scientists designed a "molecular condom" women could use daily to prevent AIDS by vaginally inserting a liquid that would turn into a gel-like coating and then, when exposed to semen, return to liquid form and release an antiviral drug.
An experimental antiretroviral drug designated as MK-0518 rapidly achieves sharp reductions in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) levels, and may offer the prospect of single-drug treatment for patients with HIV infection, according to a Rapid Communication in a recent issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
A University of Illinois at Chicago study has been stopped early due to preliminary results indicating that medical circumcision of men reduces their risk of acquiring HIV during heterosexual intercourse by 53%. The study's independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board met Dec. 12 to review the interim data. Based on the board's review, the National Institutes of Health halted the trial and recommended that all men enrolled in the study who remain uncircumcised be offered circumcision.
AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, iMetrikus, Inc., the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2007. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
