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Last Updated: Nov 18, 2006 - 12:32:53 PM |
Latest Research
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Keeping A3G in action represents a new way to attack HIV
For years researchers have been trying to understand how a few HIV-infected patients naturally defeat a virus that otherwise overwhelms the immune system. Last year, a research team at the University of Rochester Medical Center confirmed that such patients, called long-term non-progressors, maintain higher than normal levels of the enzyme called APOBEC-3G (A3G) in their white blood cells, which function to stave off infections. Now, the same group has teamed up with a structural biologist to provide the first look at the A3G structure. Such information represents an early step toward the design of a new class of drugs that could afford to all the same natural protection enjoyed by few, according to a study published today in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Nov 7, 2006 - 10:20:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Fighting HIV With HIV Virus Itself
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report the first clinical test of a new gene therapy based on a disabled AIDS virus carrying genetic material that inhibits HIV replication. For the first application of the new vector five subjects with chronic HIV infection who had failed to respond to at least two antiretroviral regimens were given a single infusion of their own immune cells that had been genetically modified for HIV resistance.
Nov 7, 2006 - 10:12:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
HIV exploits competition among T-cells
A new HIV study shows how competition among the human immune system's T cells allows the virus to escape destruction and eventually develop into full-blown AIDS. The study, which employs a computer model of simultaneous virus and immune system evolution, also suggests a new strategy for vaccinating against the virus � a strategy that the computer simulations suggest may prevent the final onset of AIDS.
Oct 17, 2006 - 2:08:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Harmless GB Virus type C (GBV-C) protects against HIV infection
How a harmless virus called GB Virus type C (GBV-C) protects against HIV infection is now better understood. Researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Iowa City Health Care System and the University of Iowa have identified a protein segment that strongly inhibits HIV from growing in cell models. The team found that an 85-amino acid segment within a GBV-C viral protein called NS5A greatly slows down HIV from replicating in cells grown in labs. The study results will appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding builds on earlier VA and UI work showing that people with HIV who also are infected GBV-C live longer than those infected only with HIV, said Jinhua Xiang, M.D., a VA research health scientific specialist, UI researcher and the current study's principal author.
Oct 10, 2006 - 1:33:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Study defines effective microbicide design for HIV/AIDS prevention
Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a computer tool they say could lead to improvements in topical microbicides being developed for women to use to prevent infection by the virus that causes AIDS.
Oct 1, 2006 - 11:12:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
HIV depends on human p75, study shows
Mayo Clinic virologists have discovered that a specific human protein is essential for HIV to integrate into the human genome. Their findings show that when HIV inserts itself into a chromosome, a key step that enables it to establish a "safe haven," it requires a specific protein -- LEDGF/p75 (p75). This protein forms a molecular tether between chromosomes and HIV's integrating protein (integrase). If the connection can be disrupted in the future, it might lead to new therapy for HIV or safer methods of gene therapy.
Sep 9, 2006 - 12:40:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Simplified treatment of HIV infection shows promise
A preliminary study indicates that using a single boosted protease inhibitor instead of the standard regimen of 3 drugs for maintenance therapy may be an effective treatment for select patients with HIV infection, according to a study in the August 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.
Aug 14, 2006 - 1:43:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Clinical trial evaluates first-line approaches for treating HIV
In the first head-to-head comparison between two commonly used HIV treatments, researchers found one triple-drug therapy was significantly more effective at reducing HIV viral load in the blood when used as a first-line treatment. Results of the clinical trial, which sought to determine from among three different therapies the optimal approach for patients beginning HIV treatment for the first time, will be reported at the XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006).
Aug 14, 2006 - 1:25:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
T cells activated to fight HIV basis for dendritic cell therapeutic vaccine
Having their immune system cells go through a laboratory version of boot camp may help patients win their battle against HIV, believe University of Pittsburgh researchers. In essence, that's the concept behind the development of a novel therapeutic vaccine loaded with a patient's own souped up dendritic cells, which have been galvanized to rally other cells of the immune system in fighting the virus unique to that individual.
Aug 14, 2006 - 12:16:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
B cells with special protein direct HIV to T cells
HIV infection of T cells requires activation of a molecule on the surface of B cells, a finding that reveals yet another pathway the virus uses in its insidious attack on the immune system, University of Pittsburgh researchers will report at the XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006).
Aug 14, 2006 - 12:11:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
TMC-114 (Darunavir) to be used as first treatment for drug-resistant HIV
Doctors have their first FDA-approved tool to treat drug-resistant HIV thanks to a new molecule created by a Purdue University researcher.
Aug 3, 2006 - 5:14:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
HIV hides from drugs in gut, preventing immune recovery
UC Davis researchers have discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, is able to survive efforts to destroy it by hiding out in the mucosal tissues of the intestine. They also found that HIV continues to replicate in the gut mucosa, suppressing immune function in patients being treated with antiretroviral therapy--even when blood samples from the same individuals indicated the treatment was working.
Jul 30, 2006 - 2:32:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Gene Therapy Possible for AIDS by Cultivating T-cells from Embryonic Stem Cells
Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine have demonstrated for the first time that human embryonic stem cells can be genetically manipulated and coaxed to develop into mature T-cells, raising hopes for a gene therapy to combat AIDS.
Jul 10, 2006 - 8:34:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Fixed dose combination tablet simplifies the treatment of HIV-1
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued the first tentative approval for a three-ingredient fixed dose tablet for use as a stand-alone antiretroviral treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection in adults. The product (lamivudine-zidovudine-nevirapine tablet) contains the active ingredients in the widely used antiretroviral drugs Epivir (lamivudine), Retrovir (zidovudine), and Viramune (nevirapine).
Jul 6, 2006 - 2:09:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
HIV disease model details survival benefits of HIV therapies
Increasingly effective HIV therapy--including a decade of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)--has provided 3 million years of extended life to Americans with AIDS since 1989, report researchers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Jun 3, 2006 - 8:48:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Rhesus macaque monkeys in Nepal are suitable alternative for HIV/AIDS research
Scientists investigating the genetic makeup of rhesus macaque monkeys, a key species used in biomedical research, have found the rhesus in Nepal may provide a suitable alternative to alleviate a critical shortage of laboratory animals used in work to develop vaccines against diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Writing in the cover story of the current issue of the American Journal of Primatology, researchers headed by Randall Kyes of the University of Washington report that the Nepali macaques are more closely related genetically to rhesus macaques from India than rhesus macaques of China. This is important because Indian-origin animals have been used for more than half a century in biomedical and behavioral research. Rhesus macaques have contributed to the discovery of vaccines to prevent diseases such as polio and yellow fever, and represent one of the most widely used primate models for AIDS-related research. India, however, banned the export of all macaques in 1978, thus leading to the current shortage. Although China has been exporting captive-bred animals for sometime, scientists have noted a number of behavioral and physiological differences in disease progression between animals from the two countries, and the Indian-origin macaques are generally preferred in research on certain diseases.
Jun 1, 2006 - 1:24:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
HIV-1 Originated in Wild Chimpanzees
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has discovered a crucial missing link in the search for the origin of HIV-1, the virus responsible for human AIDS. That missing link is the natural reservoir of the virus, which the team has found in wild-living chimpanzees in southern Cameroon.
May 28, 2006 - 10:30:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Current safe sex education is not changing sexual risk behaviour
Current efforts to combat sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy in schools do not change sexual risk behaviour, concludes a study in this week's BMJ.
May 19, 2006 - 8:07:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Chancroid vaccine may help reduce the transmission of HIV
HIV plagues more than 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization, and efforts to develop a vaccine against the virus have achieved limited success.
May 6, 2006 - 7:32:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Influence of mega-social issues on HIV pandemic
In an Editorial Review published in the current issue of AIDS (2006,20,7, 1-5), HIV researchers from Argentina, Australia, South Africa, and the United States address the challenging question of the impact of major social, ecological, political, economic, biomedical, viral, and other changes on the HIV epidemic and the world's ability to respond. Even as great progress has been made in addressing this infectious disease, global developments, if not researched and planned for, could easily derail or destroy the progress made.
Apr 11, 2006 - 12:43:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Race/Ethnicity, Lipoproteins, and Antiretroviral Therapy
HIV-1 infection has become a chronic, manageable condition for patients who can get long-term access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). However, for some patients, HAART causes various metabolic complications, including the development of dyslipidemia. For example, some protease inhibitors (PI), a class of anti-HIV drugs, have been associated with elevated levels of cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c).
Mar 29, 2006 - 1:03:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Do plants have the potential to vaccinate against HIV?
Scientists have developed a new kind of molecule which they believe could ultimately lead to the development of a vaccine against HIV using genetically modified tobacco. Writing in Plant Biotechnology Journal, Dr Patricia Obregon and colleagues from St George's, University of London along with researchers at the University of Warwick say they have overcome a major barrier that has so far frustrated attempts to turn plants into economically viable "bioreactors" for vaccines.
Mar 13, 2006 - 8:33:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Combination therapy improves survival rates in AIDS-related lymphoma
Combining aggressive HIV therapy and chemotherapy significantly improves the survival rates of HIV-positive men and women treated for lymphoma, according to a new study.
Feb 27, 2006 - 6:02:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
First study to evaluate antiretroviral as a vaginal microbicide proves safe
A new study from infectious disease researchers at The Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School finds that a drug already given orally to treat HIV is also safe when applied as a vaginal microbicide gel. Microbicides are designed to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and may be formulated as vaginal gels, foams, creams, or suppositories.
Feb 12, 2006 - 6:24:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Protective effects of male circumcision in women
A statistical review of the past medical files of more than 300 couples in Uganda, in which the female partner was HIV negative and the male was HIV positive, provides solid documentation of the protective effects of male circumcision in reducing the risk of infection among women.
Feb 10, 2006 - 3:42:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Enfurvitide prevents mother-to-child transmission of HIV
DOCTORS from St George's Hospital have found that a new drug for treating HIV infections can prevent pregnant women infected with a drug-resistant form of the virus from transmitting it to their babies.
Jan 26, 2006 - 4:38:00 AM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Vaginal washes increases HIV risk
Women who use vaginal washes are more likely to be infected with HIV than those who do not, says a University of Washington study.
Jan 23, 2006 - 4:02:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Once-daily antiretroviral combination more effective than traditional drug �cocktail� for HIV
An international team of AIDS researchers at Johns Hopkins and other institutions has found that a once-daily combination of three antiretroviral drugs works better as an initial treatment for HIV infection than another three-drug combination long considered the gold standard.
Jan 22, 2006 - 10:26:00 PM
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
Continuous antiretroviral therapy superior to episodic therapy - SMART Trial
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced that enrollment into a large international HIV/AIDS trial comparing continuous antiretroviral therapy with episodic drug treatment guided by levels of CD4+ cells has been stopped. Enrollment was stopped because those patients receiving episodic therapy had twice the risk of disease progression (the development of clinical AIDS or death), the major outcome of the study.
Jan 19, 2006 - 6:01:00 PM
Latest Research
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Infectious Diseases
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AIDS
How HIV Invades Healthy Cells
Using sophisticated detection methods, researchers at the Saint Louis University Institute for Molecular Virology (IMV) have demonstrated the molecular mechanism by which the HIV virus infects, or integrates, healthy cells. The discovery could lead to new drug treatments for HIV. Although scientists theorized that two ends of the virus� DNA must come together inside a healthy cell in order to infect it, until now, investigators have not been able to illuminate the process.
Dec 22, 2005 - 4:29:00 PM
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