http://www.health.am/aids/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/protein-protects-cells-from-hiv-infection/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/protein-protects-cells-from-hiv-infection/ A novel discovery by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and colleagues reveals a mechanism by which the immune system tries to halt the spread of HIV. Harnessing this mechanism may open up new paths for therapeutic research aimed at slowing the virus’ progression to AIDS. The study appears online ahead of print today in Nature Immunology. “A lot of research on viruses, especially HIV, is aimed at trying to understand what the body’s mechanisms of resistance are and then to understand how the virus has gotten around these mechanisms,” said co-lead investigator Nathaniel R. Landau, PhD, a professor of microbiology at the Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center at NYU School of Medicine. The research focused on a protein called SAMHD1. Recent studies have found that immune cells, called dendritic cells, containing the protein are resistant to infection by HIV. Since the discovery, scientists have sought to understand how SAMHD1 works to protect these cells, with hopes that science might find a way to synthetically apply that protection to other cells.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-02-12T19:19:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/aids-prevention-inspires-ways/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/aids-prevention-inspires-ways/ The day of the assembly-line circumcision is drawing closer. Now that three studies have shown that circumcising adult heterosexual men is one of the most effective “vaccines” against AIDS - reducing the chances of infection by 60 percent or more - public health experts are struggling to find ways to make the process faster, cheaper and safer. The goal is to circumcise 20 million African men by 2015, but only about 600,000 have had the operation thus far. Even a skilled surgeon takes about 15 minutes, most African countries are desperately short of surgeons, and there is no Mohels Without Borders.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-02-01T12:03:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/750-million-into-troubled-aids-fund/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/750-million-into-troubled-aids-fund/ Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged a further $750 million to the troubled global AIDS fund on Thursday and urged governments to continue their support to save lives. “These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world’s poorest,” he said in Davos at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria announced two days ago that its executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, was stepping down early following criticism over misuse of funds and cuts in funding. HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-26T18:38:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/women-cope-with-hiv-aids/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/women-cope-with-hiv-aids/ A spoonful of medicine goes down a lot easier if there is a dog or cat around. Having pets is helpful for women living with HIV/AIDS and managing their chronic illness, according to a new study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. “We think this finding about pets can apply to women managing other chronic illnesses,” said Allison R. Webel, instructor of nursing and lead author of the article, “The Relationship Between Social Roles and Self-Management Behavior in Women Living with HIV/AIDS,” which appears in the online journal Women’s Health Issues. Webel set out to better understand how women manage their HIV/AIDS and stay on track to take their medications, follow doctors’ orders and live healthy lifestyles. She conducted 12 focus groups with 48 women to find out what they did to stay healthy. The women had an average age of 42, about 90 percent had children, and more than half were single. HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-25T09:41:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/saliva-hiv-test-passes-the-grade/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/saliva-hiv-test-passes-the-grade/ A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University. The meta-analysis, which compared studies worldwide, showed that the saliva HIV test, OraQuick HIV1/2, had the same accuracy as the blood test for high-risk populations. The test sensitivity was slightly reduced for low risk populations. The study, published in this week’s issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, has major implications for countries that wish to adopt self-testing strategies for HIV. “Testing is the cornerstone of prevention, treatment and care strategies,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Nitika Pant Pai, a medical scientist at the RI-MUHC and assistant professor of Medicine at McGill University. “Although previous studies have shown that the oral fluid-based OraQuick HIV1/2 test has great promise, ours is the first to evaluate its potential at a global level.” Dr. Pant Pai and her colleagues analyzed and synthesized real-life field research data from five worldwide databases. Their findings showed that the saliva test is 99 percent accurate for HIV in high risk populations, and about 97 percent in low risk populations.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-24T21:31:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/seizure-drugs-for-people-with-hiv-aids/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/seizure-drugs-for-people-with-hiv-aids/ A new guideline issued by the American Academy of Neurology recommends doctors use caution when choosing seizure drugs for people with HIV/AIDS to avoid potential drug interactions. The guideline, which was co-developed with the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), is published in the January 4, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology and in Epilepsia, the journal of the ILAE. Seizures and seizure disorders are common in people infected with HIV, with more than one in 10 patients experiencing seizures. According to the guideline, when certain seizure drugs are combined with certain HIV/AIDS drugs, one or more of the combined drugs may become less effective or more toxic. Seizure drugs that decrease HIV/AIDS drug levels, such as phenytoin, phenobarbital and carbamazepine, may cause HIV/AIDS drugs to fail. HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-07T12:35:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/drug-to-treat-hiv-in-children-shows-promise/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/drug-to-treat-hiv-in-children-shows-promise/ For children and adolescents with HIV infection, the recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the use of raltegravir, an antiretroviral drug that slows the spread of HIV infection, offers a new weapon to treat HIV infection in children. So says Sharon Nachman, M.D., Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Pediatrics, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and the Principal Investigator and Study Chair of a national multicenter clinical trial that studied the safety and efficacy of raltegravir in HIV-infected children and adolescents. The FDA approved raltegravir for use with other antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV infection in children and adolescents ages 2 to 18 years on December 21. Approved for use in adults in 2007, raltegravir is part of a class of medications called HIV integrase inhibitors. In the clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, all of the 96 patients enrolled had previously been treated with a regimen of other HIV medications before raltegravir. After being treated for 24 weeks with raltegravir, 53 percent of the patients had an undetectable amount of HIV in their blood.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-07T10:53:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/hope-for-hiv-vaccines/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/hope-for-hiv-vaccines/ An experimental vaccine helped protect monkeys from an especially deadly form of the AIDS virus, raising new hope for an effective vaccine in people, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. The vaccine reduced the risk of infection by 80 percent among monkeys exposed to a primate version of the virus, while monkeys that became infected had lower amounts of the virus in their blood, the team reported in the journal Nature. “It is an important advance in knowledge,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a telephone interview. HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-04T22:39:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/pathogenic-landscape-of-hiv/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/pathogenic-landscape-of-hiv/ In perhaps the most comprehensive survey of the inner workings of HIV, an international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has mapped every apparent physical interaction the virus makes with components of the human cells it infects-work that may reveal new ways to design future HIV/AIDS drugs. Explored this week in back-to-back papers in the journal Nature, the survey reveals a pathogenic landscape in which HIV’s handful of proteins makes hundreds of physical connections with human proteins and other components inside the cell. In one paper, the team details 497 such connections, only a handful of which had been previously recognized by scientists. Disrupting these connections may interfere with HIV’s lifecycle, and the existence of so many new connections suggests there may be several novel ways to target the virus.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-03T19:33:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/aids/more/bali-hiv-scare-fuels-concern-over-tattoo-safety/ http://www.health.am/aids/more/bali-hiv-scare-fuels-concern-over-tattoo-safety/ Travelers who have gotten tattoos or piercings while in Bali are being warned to seek medical advice after a Western Australian man reportedly contracted HIV during a recent holiday trip. Australian health officials are urging travelers to be careful about getting tattoos or piercings in developing countries as the regulations and codes of practice don’t necessarily comply with Australia’s. While investigations are still underway into this particular case, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that to avoid infections from HIV and viral hepatitis, individuals should not share needles for tattoos, body piercings, or other injections.  HIV/AIDS news 2012-01-03T18:51:00-08:00