Feature Channels: AIDS and HIV

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O mês de junho marca o 40º aniversário do primeiro relatório científico descrevendo a pneumocistose, que depois passou a ser conhecida como síndrome da imunodeficiência adquirida (AIDS).

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El mes de junio marca el cuadragésimo aniversario del primer informe científico que describió la neumonía por pneumocystis, después conocida como síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida (SIDA).

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Global health researchers at the University of Washington have received a $122 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of a once-a-month oral pill to prevent HIV.

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A groundbreaking study found that stem cells reduce the amount of virus causing AIDS, boost the body’s antiviral immunity, and restore the gut’s lymphoid follicles damaged by HIV. It provided a roadmap for multi-pronged HIV eradication strategies.

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A comprehensive health-screening program in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has found a high burden of undiagnosed or poorly controlled non-communicable diseases, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health.

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Researchers have designed a device that delivers two medications that help stop HIV transmission.

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The annual number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) in England is likely to have fallen dramatically, from 2,770 in 2013 to 854 in 2018, showing elimination of HIV transmission by 2030 to be within reach - suggests work by researchers from the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge and Public Health England (PHE), published in The Lancet HIV.

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By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: June 10, 2021 | 1:06 pm | SHARE: Recent moves by the Biden administration to prohibit health care discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity were widely applauded by civil rights groups. But health officials are still fighting a battle when it comes to making sure all LGBTQ individuals receive adequate health care.

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A pilot study that hits the road to address two intersecting epidemics-– HIV among people who inject drugs and opioid dependence-– is underway at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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Mount Sinai Health System has recruited an internationally recognized expert in the management of breast cancer and HIV-associated malignancies, Joseph A. Sparano, MD, FACP, as Chief of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI). Dr. Sparano will also hold the Ezra M. Greenspan, MD Professorship in Clinical Cancer Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and will oversee the expansion of clinical and research capacities of the Division and TCI.

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SEATTLE — June 2, 2021 — Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutch research findings and other news. If you are covering news at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (June 4-8), check out our ASCO page highlighting Fred Hutch presentations and feel free to reach out to our media team for help sourcing experts: media@fredhutch.

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The $2.3 million, four-year Avenir Award will support his innovative research project, “Tele-Harm Reduction for Rapid Initiation of Antiretrovirals in People Who Inject Drugs: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”

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There are an estimated one-million transgender adults living in the U.S. and an estimated 14% of transgender women are living with HIV. Researchers at UTHealth are studying if a combination intervention that combines HIV prevention services and hormonal therapy, supported by peer health navigation, will reduce HIV acquisition among this patient population.

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Over the past year, studies have revealed that certain pre-existing conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, can increase a person’s risk of dying from COVID-19.

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A new report in JAMA Internal Medicine demonstrates how incorporating blood tests for HIV into standard COVID-19 screening in the emergency department allowed UChicago Medicine to maintain HIV screening volume during the pandemic.

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From the very beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, nurses have been at the forefront of patient care, advocacy, and research. But even in the age of antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis, many challenges remain in reducing the impact of HIV and AIDS, according to the special May/June issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC). The official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Stigma and discrimination, such as homophobia and racism, impede engagement in HIV prevention and use of biomedical tools for treatment in both HIV-negative and HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, according to a Rutgers study.

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Cisgender sexual minority men and transgender women are aware of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily pill for HIV-negative people to prevent HIV infection, but few are currently taking it, according to researchers at Rutgers. The study, published in the journal AIDS and Behavior, surveyed 202 young sexual minority men and transgender women – two high-priority populations for HIV prevention – to better understand why some were more likely than others to be taking PrEP.

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The lab of Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, has received a $3.74 million grant over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will fund the creation of an injectable that will provide long-acting protection for women against sexually transmitted pathogens and prevent pregnancy, but is also removable.

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The Global Virus Network (GVN), a coalition of the world’s leading medical virology research centers working together to prevent illness and death from viral disease, today announced the election of eight distinguished global leaders to its Board of Directors.

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The Global Virus Network, the world’s leading coalition of virologists combatting current and emerging pandemic viral threats and viral causes of disease through international collaborative research response, mourns the passing of its good friend and fellow GVN Board of Directors member, John Martin, PhD.

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A UCLA research team has shown that using a truncated form of the CD4 molecule as part of a gene therapy to combat HIV yielded superior and longer-lasting results in mouse models than previous similar therapies using the CD4 molecule.

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The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine mourns the passing of John Martin, PhD., a leader in supporting access to life-saving anti-HIV medications that although still under patent were made widely and affordably available to millions infected with HIV.

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UNC School of Medicine scientists found that HIV boosts a key process in human cells to fuel its replication. They also found that the diabetes drug metformin inhibits that process and thereby suppresses HIV replication in these cells in cell lines and animal models.

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Dr. Robert C. Gallo, the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine, director and co-founder of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the co-Founder and International Scientific Advisor of the Global Virus Network, presented “From T Cells and Human Retroviruses to the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Innate Immunity” as the 2021 David Packard Award Lecturer at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Monday, March 22.

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The proof-of-concept AMP studies demonstrated that a broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb) called VRC01 was effective at preventing the acquisition of HIV strains to the 30% of strains that were sensitive to the bnAb. This finding was seen both in Sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S. and South America. VRCO1 did not prevent the acquisition of HIV to strains that were resistant to the bNAb.

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Dr. Matthew Mimiaga, director of the UCLA Center for LGBTQ Advocacy, Research & Health (C-LARAH), leads $8.8 million project HIV prevention project funded by the National Institutes of Health

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A study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that just under 20 percent of HIV-uninfected patients visiting Baltimore sexual health clinics were aware of pre-exposure prophylaxis medication (PrEP), a daily regimen that decreases a person’s risk of contracting HIV from sex by more than 90 percent.

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Home delivery of HIV medicines in South Africa significantly increased viral suppression compared to those who received clinical care, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The study was conducted with Amazon.com guidance during COVID-19 restrictions in South Africa.

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The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the largest global HIV research network, will present four oral and 20 scientific spotlight sessions at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2021) held virtually, March 6-10.

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April 2021 highlights from AJPH Issue includes COVID-19-related articles around deaths linked to unemployment, higher than reported death toll in Florida and crowdfunding campaigns spreading misinformation

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In 2019, the U.S. rolled out a new initiative aimed at ending the HIV epidemic by the year 2030. In a new analysis published in The Lancet, Carlos Rodriguez-Diaz, an Associate Professor at the George Washington University, suggests that initiative will fail unless the U.S. addresses the rising rates of HIV infection in Latinx sexual and gender minority populations.

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Using venom from the Conus nux, a sea snail, a first-of-its-kind study suggests these conotoxins could potentially treat malaria. The study provides important leads toward the development of new and cost-effective anti-adhesion or blockade-therapy drugs aimed at counteracting the pathology of severe malaria. Similarly, mitigation of emerging diseases like COVID-19 also could benefit from conotoxins as potential inhibitors of protein-protein interactions as treatment. Venom peptides from cone snails has the potential to treat myriad diseases using blockage therapies.

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The AIDS Clinical Trials Group has added rapid infusion, intramuscular injection, an inhalant, and an oral agent to its ACTIV-2 phase 2 and 3 evaluations of multiple investigational agents for treating early, symptomatic COVID-19 in a single trial for outpatient treatment.

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Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, is widespread in critically ill patients in lower resourced hospitals, and the duration of delirium predicted both mortality and disability at six months after discharge, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

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SEATTLE —Feb. 4, 2021 —Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutch research findings and other news with links for additional background and media contacts.We are looking forward to the Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings, to be held online Feb. 8-12. Read highlights of Fred Hutch research to be presented, including on COVID-19 and cancer and new insights on treating graft-vs.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a potential way to eradicate the latent HIV infection that lies dormant inside infected immune cells. Studying human immune cells, the researchers showed that such cells have a natural alarm system that detects the activity of a specific HIV protein. Rather than attack the virus based on appearance, this strategy is to attack the virus based on what it is doing — vital activities that are required for the virus to exist.

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New research out of the University at Albany and the AIDS Institute at the New York State Department of Health found that through the middle of 2020, people diagnosed with HIV infection were significantly more likely to contract, be hospitalized with and die from COVID-19.

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Shyam Kottilil, MBBS, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and Director of UMSOM’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV) Division of Clinical Care and Research, has been awarded Mastership in the American College of Physicians (ACP), the national organization of internists.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Professor Mahesh Mohan, D.V.M., Ph.D., and collaborators more than $3.5 million over five years to investigate the effects of cannabinoids on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). This research project aims to evaluate whether delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) alone or in combination can potentially alter DNA methylation, which is a biological process that can create a change in the expression of certain genes.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine Media Relations is focused on disseminating current, accurate and useful information to the public via the media. As part of that effort, we are distributing our “COVID-19 Tip Sheet: Story Ideas from Johns Hopkins” every other Tuesday.

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SEATTLE – Dec. 2, 2020 – Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutch research findings and other news with links for additional background and media contacts.If you’re following the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting (virtual, Dec. 5-8), see our media tip sheet highlighting Fred Hutch presentations and activities, including those by current ASH president Dr.

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This World AIDS Day, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which the ATS is a founding member, is calling on governments, health advocates and non-government organizations to strengthen their response to AIDS and tuberculosis, and to ensure that TB services are maintained throughout their response to COVID-19.

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University of California San Diego has been selected by the NIH to lead and administer an international seven-year, $28-million grant for HIV/AIDS clinical trials.

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The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the largest global HIV research network, has been re-funded for the next seven years by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and collaborating NIH Institutes.

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The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai will host a virtual event on World AIDS Day.