Feature Channels: AIDS and HIV

• share
• favorite_border

A new study of nearly 14,000 U.S. women reveals that those who are in physically abusive relationships are at higher risk for HIV infection.

• share
• favorite_border

Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., director of the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), was recently named as the recipient of the Dana Foundation Award in Human Immunology Research by the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). Dr. Banchereau was presented with the award at the 96th Annual Meeting of the AAI this month.

• share
• favorite_border

Understanding stigma as it relates to coping strategies and sexual risk-taking among people with HIV/AIDS living in rural communities drives the work of UVM psychology professors, recently awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study finds the cross-talk between "˜killer T-cells' and "˜helper T-cells' can only happen in the presence of interleukin-21, a powerful immune-system protein. UAB researchers said if interleukin-21 is missing, the immune system's anti-viral efforts fail. The study mice were treated for lymphocytic choriomeningitis.

• share
• favorite_border

With the struggling economy, everyone is trying to save money. People are eating out less and staying home instead of taking vacations. Unfortunately, at times like this, there also is a tendency for people with hearing loss to forego physician-recommended treatments, such as hearing aids.

• share
• favorite_border

Jonathan R. Lai, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has been awarded the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation's 2009 Young Investigator Award.

• share
• favorite_border

The Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics and the Case Center for AIDS Research at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have a received a $989,108 grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institute of Health (NIH), with the ability to receive a total of $3,007,946 by 2011.

• share
• favorite_border

The last decade has seen a sharp drop in HIV infections in the Dominican Republic, resulting largely from reductions in risky sexual behavior, according to a paper in a supplement to the May 1 issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

• share
• favorite_border

Universal AIDS testing can be achieved with a simple blood draw, a finger prick or a cheek swab, but the benefits are mighty. HIV detected early means infection treatments are less expensive, more effective and help lower the probability of spreading the disease to others.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing spring news briefs feature the latest in research on evaluating health disparities in the military, partnering with parents for emotionally healthy children, prevention of violence against women and connections to HIV, familial colon cancer risk, and more.

• share
• favorite_border

An analysis of three recent studies finds that heterosexual African men reduced their risk of HIV infection by half after undergoing circumcision.

• share
• favorite_border

Even though suicide outranks homicide as a cause of death in the United States, incomplete death certificates thwart healthcare policymakers who want to create prevention strategies "“ especially for black and Hispanic populations, a WVU study shows.

• share
• favorite_border

William L. Yarber, senior director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University, said a new federally funded media campaign designed to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS is necessary and welcomed. He said the public's concern about HIV/AIDS has been lessening, particularly in rural areas, where denial is pervasive.

• share
• favorite_border

African Americans account for nearly 49 percent of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases nationwide. About 500,000 African Americans are now living with HIV/AIDS. Yet there are very few African American HIV/AIDS researchers. A new study outlines a strategy to reverse this trend.

• share
• favorite_border

Older African-Americans with HIV/AIDS frequently draw upon their spiritual beliefs to cope with the disease but rarely disclose it to friends inside or outside the church, according to a study.

• share
• favorite_border

The clinically approved AIDS drug ABC (Abacavir) can reduce proliferation and induce differentiation of human medulloblastoma cells through the downregulation of telomerase activity, which may make it an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of the highly malignant primary brain tumors, according to research published in the International Journal of Cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Between 1990 and 2005, the percentage of new AIDS cases diagnosed among women more than doubled, increasing from 11 percent to more than 26 percent. Women of color were disproportionately affected. In 2005, the CDC estimated that 64 percent of the women living with HIV/AIDS were black and 15 percent were Hispanic. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women ages 25 to 34.

• share
• favorite_border

A group including leading academic and industry scientists has issued a challenge to researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS: find a way to effectively purge latent HIV infection and eliminate the need for chronic, suppressive therapy to control this disease.

• share
• favorite_border

CIHR Expert Alert - Experts discuss female-related health problems for International Women's Day (March 8th).

• share
• favorite_border

The future of AIDS vaccine exploration has many obstacles before it, including a deeper understanding of host-virus interaction and the immune system. A new study better describes HIV's ability to adapt by spelling out at least 14 different "escape mutations" that help keep the virus alive after it interacts with immunity molecules that normally attack HIV. The research appears online in Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study finds that gene therapy can be developed as a safe and active technique to combat HIV. Researchers involved in this first-of-its-kind study found that cell-delivered gene transfer has the potential to be a once-only treatment that reduces viral load, preserves the immune system and avoids lifelong antiretroviral therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

1) Disparities exist among races in AIDS mortality; 2) Victims of child maltreatment have increased risk for STDs.

• share
• favorite_border

The Healthy Living Project, a program designed and evaluated by the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies of Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for inclusion in The 2008 Compendium of Evidence-based HIV Prevention Interventions.

• share
• favorite_border

Even the most drug-resistant fungi can be eradicated in multiple in vitro and in vivo models using a lethal combination of an antifungal agent and inhibition of a specific heat shock protein (Hsp90). Such findings could point to a novel approach for the development of future antifungal therapies for patients with compromised immune systems, including HIV, chemotherapy, and organ transfer patients.

• share
• favorite_border

Antiretroviral drug therapy in an HIV-positive man or women can alone help prevent the transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner, regardless of counseling, the patient's use of condoms or other safe-sex practices, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins report.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins and Ugandan scientists say counting the number of HIV viruses in the blood rather than relying solely on counting the number of circulating HIV-fighting CD4 immune system cells is a far better way to uncover early signs that antiretroviral drugs are losing their punch, and to signal the need to get patients on more potent treatments to keep the disease in check.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a deadly microbe evades the human immune system and causes disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Graduate student Erica Corbett believes measures to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child offer a ray of hope against a disease that has ravaged a continent.

• share
• favorite_border

A program designed and evaluated at The Medical College of Wisconsin to help prevent the spread of HIV in high-risk populations has been one of eight chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for inclusion in The 2008 Compendium of Evidence-based HIV Prevention Interventions. To be included, programs must be scientifically proven to reduce HIV or STD-related risk behaviors, or promote safer behaviors.

• share
• favorite_border

Hospitals in states where Medicaid does not pay for routine male circumcision are only about half as likely to perform the procedure, and this disparity could lead to an increased risk of HIV infection among lower-income children later in life.

• share
• favorite_border

Success in fighting HIV/AIDS in women may require altered strategies, but adherence to medications is still the key, a University of Maryland, Baltimore pharmacist tells eclectic student class.

• share
• favorite_border

A nationwide human rights crisis lurks behind prison walls. Patients chained to beds shared Limestone Prison's Dorm 16 with insects and vermin. In the filthy, drafty rooms, contagious diseases spread like wildfire through the HIV+ population.

• share
• favorite_border

Once quite treatable, tuberculosis has slowly evolved resistance to first- and second-line antibiotics, throwing the wisdom of employing antibiotics to treat TB into doubt. Now, Radnor-based PolyMedix reports that a series of small-molecule mimics of host defense peptides (HDPs), which in vitro stop the TB bacteria in its tracks.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has clarified how two major variants of HIV differ in their ability to cause neurologic complications. The finding highlights a new target for drugs that could prevent HIV-associated dementia, an incurable and increasingly common complication in people with AIDS.

• share
• favorite_border

A simple speech changed one Temple University scientist's life. Dr. Dianne Langford, PhD explains why she chose to research the effects of HIV on the brain in Ethiopia after a fateful encounter at an NIH conference.

• share
• favorite_border

NetWellness (www.NetWellness.org), a highly regarded consumer health Web site, premieres a new HIV/AIDS Center. In this new section of the site, consumers will be able to find a comprehensive resource for HIV and AIDS.

• share
• favorite_border

In conjunction with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, the University of Michigan will launch a searchable, online trove of AIDS-related literature gathered by a prominent science writer.

• share
• favorite_border

The risk of non-AIDS cancer is higher for individuals infected with HIV than for the general population, according to a meta-analysis presented here at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have unraveled in unprecedented detail the cascade of events that go wrong in brain cells affected by HIV, a virus whose assault on the nervous system continues unabated despite antiviral medications that can keep the virus at bay for years in the rest of the body.

• share
• favorite_border

Garbage collectors are important for removing trash; without them waste accumulates and can quickly become a health hazard. Similarly, individual cells that make up such biological organisms as humans also have sophisticated methods for managing waste.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in the US and UK have engineered T cells able to recognize HIV-1 strains that have evaded the immune system, which has have important implications for developing new treatments for HIV.

• share
• favorite_border

Immune cells lose the ability to divide as they age because a part of their chromosomes known as a telomere becomes progressively shorter with cell division. As a result, its disease fighting ability is compromised. But a chemical from the Astragalus root can prevent or slow the progressive telomere shortening, which could make it a key weapon in the fight against HIV.

• share
• favorite_border

Education has found its way onto the soccer fields of North Carolina "“ in the form of a social experiment that may have all the right ingredients to change the direction of Latino health in the United States.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite ongoing efforts to educate the public about HIV, a new study found that two-thirds of families with an HIV-infected parent experience fears about spreading HIV in the home.

• share
• favorite_border

A study published today online in The Journal of Experimental Medicine sheds light on the potential mechanisms responsible for the increased incidence of HIV infection that was observed in the failed STEP HIV vaccine trial in 2007. Through the development of an experimental in vitro model, the study shows that the immune complexes formed by antibodies and the adenovirus vector (the Trojan horse for the delivery of the vaccine) induce a strong activation signal of key cells, i.e. dendritic cells, responsible for the activation of the cellular arm of the immune response including CD4 T-cells, the primary target for HIV.

• share
• favorite_border

HIV-infected adults taking the antiretroviral drug efavirenz were more likely to adhere to treatment and less likely to experience virologic failure and death compared to patients taking nevirapine. Nevirapine is the most frequently prescribed drug for patients undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

As many as one quarter of HIV patients have drug resistance, limiting their treatment options and raising their risk for AIDS and death. Now, maraviroc, the first of a new class of HIV drugs called CCR5 receptor antagonists, has been shown to be effective over 48 weeks for drug-resistant patients with R5 HIV-1, a variation of the virus found in more than half of HIV-infected patients.

• share
• favorite_border

U-M scientists have provided the most detailed picture yet of a key HIV accessory protein that foils the body's normal immune response. Based on the findings, the team is searching for new drugs that may someday allow infected people to be cured and no longer need today's AIDS drugs for a lifetime.

• share
• favorite_border

Nine-member AIDS research network expands and serves as a one-of-a-kind consortium for clinical, translational and basic science to address how HIV causes AIDS, HIV prevention and treatment advances.