A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study of insurance coverage of more than 28,000 people with HIV concludes that a decades-old program that offers free medical care remains a critical necessity despite the availability of coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
University of Chicago scientists and their colleagues have developed an innovative computer model of HIV that gives real insight into how a virus “matures” and becomes infective.
The Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University (Milken Institute SPH) today announced receiving two separate awards for a total of $7 million to study the human microbiome, the collection of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on the human body. The first study, a $3.3 million award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), will focus on the bacterial ecosystem of the penis and how it may affect an individual’s risk for acquiring an HIV infection. The second study, a $3.7 million award from NIAID, will focus on bacteria living in the human nose with the goal of finding strategies to protect people from dangerous Staph infections.
When new HIV particles bud from an infected cell, the enzyme protease activates to help the viruses infect more cells. Modern AIDS drugs control the disease by inhibiting protease. Now, University of Utah researchers showed that if they delay the budding of new HIV particles, protease itself will destroy the virus instead of helping it spread. That that might lead to new AIDS drugs in a decade.
By watching brightly glowing HIV-infected immune cells move within mice, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shown how infected immune cells latch onto an uninfected sister cell to directly transmit newly minted viral particles.
Vaccines are usually medicine’s best defense against the world’s deadliest microbes. However, HIV is so mutable that it has so far effectively evaded both the human immune system and scientists’ attempts to make an effective vaccine to protect against it. Now, researchers have figured out how to make a much-improved research tool that they hope will open the door to new and better HIV vaccine designs.
Alcohol use, especially at binge levels, is associated with sexual HIV-risk behavior, but the mechanisms through which alcohol increases sexual risk taking are not well understood. This study addresses that gap.
New molecular dynamics research into how RNA folds into hairpin-shaped structures called tetraloops could provide important insights into new treatments for retroviral diseases.
Chris Destache, Pharm.D., earned a National Institutes for Health grant last year to look into using HIV drug nanoparticles fabricated with a FDA-approved biocompatible polymer and how those drug-ladened nanoparticles can be used to help prevent HIV.
A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron analysis to better understand a protein implicated in the replication of HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS. The enzyme, known as HIV-1 protease, is a key drug target for HIV and AIDS therapies. The multi-institutional team used neutron crystallography to uncover detailed interactions of hydrogen bonds at the enzyme’s active site, revealing a pH-induced proton ‘hopping’ mechanism that guides its activity.
To train future HIV researchers, the University at Buffalo and University of Zimbabwe have partnered to form the HIV Research Training Program, supported by a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) John E. Fogarty International Center.
Researchers from UAB, Emory and Microsoft demonstrate that HIV has evolved to be pre-adapted to the immune response, worsening clinical outcomes in newly infected patients.
In a study of nearly 500,000 individuals in 22 countries, researchers could not find any evidence that these programs had an impact on changing individual behavior.
With more than 36.9 million people infected globally, HIV continues to be a major public health issue. Those living with the virus are at an increased risk for other non-AIDS diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and though it’s not entirely clear why, this has been associated with inflammation and abnormal blood clotting.A new study – the largest of its kind – involving researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), published recently in PLOS ONE, provides direct evidence that altered coagulation caused by the HIV virus, which can be related to inflammation, is not fully halted by HIV treatment and is associated with increased risk of non-AIDS diseases.
A study from the Department of Population Health at NYULMC and New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), led by Scheidell, is the first to examine the association between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and the risk for HIV and other STIs in an adult male criminal justice population.
The number of new HIV infections and the transmission rate in the United States dropped by 11 and 17 percent, respectively, between 2010 and 2015, but fell short of the goals put forth by President Obama’s U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
The number of new HIV infections occurring annually in the United States decreased by an estimated 11 percent from 2010 to 2015, while the HIV transmission rate decreased by an estimated 17 percent during the same time period, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania.
A U.S. government agency whose mission is to help save the lives of people around the world living with HIV and AIDS has seen a steep drop in funding for an important part of its budget. The finding, from a UCLA study, could be a cause for concern because many countries rely on the agency to help pay for vital health care services for people with the disease.
Pinellas County a Model for Mosquito-Borne Disease Surveillance, Scientists Unravel the Genetic Evolution of Zika Virus, Worm Infection Counters Inflammatory Bowel Disease and more in the Infectious Diseases News Source
Finding the vulnerable points where HIV enters the female reproductive tract is like searching for needles in a haystack. But using the light of a firefly gene, scientists have solved that challenge by creating a glowing map of the very first cells to be infected with a HIV-like virus. In an animal model, scientists showed for the first time that HIV enters cells throughout the entire female reproductive tract, not just the cervix as previously thought. Now scientists know where to attack it.
Millions of those infected with HIV worldwide are young women, ages 15-24, according to the World Health Organization. Because the HIV epidemic overlaps with an epidemic of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women and girls, researchers have suspected a correlation between inequities in relationship power and the risky sexual behavior that can lead to HIV transmission.
UAB School of Nursing Professor David Vance, Ph.D., received a five-year, $2.86 million R01 grant to test ways of improving cognitive function in older adults with HIV.
Thanks to combination antiretroviral therapies, many people with HIV can expect to live decades after being infected. Yet doctors have observed these patients often show signs of premature aging. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have applied a highly accurate biomarker to measure just how much HIV infection ages people at the cellular level — an average of almost five years.
Women account for approximately half of all individuals living with HIV worldwide, and researchers wanted to identify the risk factors that increase susceptibility of women to genital infection.
In this opinion piece, Anna Roberts, a fellow at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, discusses the current situation of lead exposure via water supply systems.
Georgetown University researchers are reporting the first case of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed in an HIV-positive individual. The finding in a 71-year-old man triggers a realization about HIV survivors now reaching the age when Alzheimer’s risk begins to escalate.
New research identifies a human (host) protein that weakens the immune response to HIV and other viruses. The findings, published in Cell Host & Microbe, have implications for improving HIV antiviral therapies and vaccines.
A group of researchers at McGill University in Montreal has recently developed a portable, paper-based electrochemical platform with multiplexing and telemedicine capabilities that may enable low-cost, point-of-care diagnosis of HIV and HCV co-infections within serum samples.
New research in monkeys exposed to SIV, the animal equivalent of HIV, reveals what happens in the very earliest stages of infection, before virus is even detectable in the blood, which is a critical but difficult period to study in humans. The findings, published online today in the journal Cell, have important implications for vaccine development and other strategies to prevent infection.
Inspired by pregnancy tests, researchers have developed a novel method to store microfluidic devices for CD4 T cell testing in extreme weather conditions for up to six months without refrigeration. These devices are used for chemotherapy monitoring, transplant patient monitoring, and especially in monitoring the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy. If produced at a large scale, the device would cost less than $1 compared with the current cost of a CD4 assay which is about $30-$50.
HIV vaccine candidate has shown to generate more than 80% protection in groups of twelve female monkeys against high dose, repeated AIDS virus exposures during part of a preclinical study.
Agencies that serve people with HIV in the U.S. are at the forefront of delivering medical care, shelter, psycho-social counseling and other services to their vulnerable clients. These services are offered through a mix of different types of agencies, including local health departments, state government agencies, non-profits and faith-based organizations. Collaboration among these various entities is essential for holistically serving the needs of their clients. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has published two studies after studying collaboration among these types of agencies in Baltimore, a severely HIV-affected city. Her research offers suggestions for improving HIV prevention, treatment and care and provides an innovation in measuring collaboration among agencies.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and collaborating institutions have described the first-ever immature or “teenage” antibody found in a powerful class of immune molecules effective against HIV.
Experts from Johns Hopkins, less than a week after announcing the world’s first HIV+ to HIV+ liver transplant, outline the special ethical concerns of such transplants in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to the World Health Organization, 37 million people are living with HIV. Antiviral medications are used to control the disease and prevent its progression to AIDS. Although antivirals improve health and increase survival for people with HIV, their use also has been linked to the development of cardiovascular disease. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have identified an enzyme that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease caused by HIV medications.
Some people infected with HIV naturally produce antibodies that effectively neutralize many strains of the rapidly mutating virus, and scientists are working to develop a vaccine capable of inducing such “broadly neutralizing” antibodies that can prevent HIV infection.
In an effort to minimize obstacles to adherence and prevent vaginal HIV transmission, UNC researchers and collaborators from Merck demonstrated the effectiveness of a new long-acting formulation of the HIV drug raltegravir in animal models.