Feature Channels: AIDS and HIV

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Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are investigating the complex relationships between the spread of the HIV virus in a population (epidemiology) and the actual, rapid evolution of the virus (phylogenetics) within each patient’s body.

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Researchers developed a first-of-its-kind microbicide gel formulation that shows promise for safe vaginal and rectal administration to prevent the sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

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The HOPE Act could allow individuals with HIV to receive organ transplants from donors with HIV, and may help reduce the country’s current organ shortage. The American Society of Nephrology worked hard to ensure passage of this no-cost legislation that may help reduce kidney transplant waiting times.

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A new intravaginal ring (IVR) has been developed for the sustained 90-day co-delivery of tenofovir and levonorgestrel, an anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drug and a contraceptive.

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Black men, vastly overrepresented among the prison population, comprise a high proportion of HIV-positive inmates and pose an infection risk to other inmates as well as members of their communities once they’re released. While sex is prohibited in U.S. prisons, sexual encounters are commonplace and few inmates express concern about getting or spreading HIV, according to a study of incarcerated Black men by Tawandra Rowell-Cunsolo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Science at the Columbia University School of Nursing.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Weill Cornell Medical College of have determined the first atomic-level structure of the tripartite HIV envelope protein—long considered one of the most difficult targets in structural biology and of great value for medical science.

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A research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has demonstrated that a group of recently discovered antibodies may be a highly effective therapy for the treatment of HIV.

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The considerable diversity of HIV worldwide represents a critical challenge for designing an effective HIV vaccine. Now a scientific team led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center shows that mosaic antigens might overcome this challenge.

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Just when some scientists were becoming more hopeful about finding a strategy to outwit HIV’s ability to resist, evade and otherwise survive efforts to rid it from the body, another hurdle has emerged to foil their plans, new research from Johns Hopkins shows.

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A new study by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists discovered that the pool of inactive HIV viruses that lingers silently in a patient’s body is larger than expected. The new findings show that the virus reservoir may be up to 60 times larger than previous estimates. These viruses continue to be a threat because they retain the ability to become active even after treatment with the best HIV drugs.

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A team of scientists at Duke Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has created an artificial protein coupled with a sugar molecule that mimics a key site on the outer coat of HIV where antibodies can bind to neutralize a wide variety of HIV strains.

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A substance in breast milk that neutralizes HIV and may protect babies from acquiring HIV from their infected mothers has been identified for the first time by researchers at Duke Medicine.

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Patients who received care at multiple HIV clinics—as opposed to only one— were less likely to take their medication and had higher HIV viral loads, a new study published in the journal AIDS and Behavior of almost 13,000 HIV patients in Philadelphia from Penn Medicine found. The findings reinforce the notion that continuous care with one provider/clinic is optimal for outcomes and even reducing transmissions, and can help cut down on duplicative HIV services that contribute to higher health care costs.

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Over the past decade, South Africa has made a dramatic reversal in child survival—mainly because of improvements in HIV/AIDS care, reports a study in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Cocaine makes otherwise resistant immune cells susceptible to infection with HIV, causing both significant infection and new production of the virus.

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The anti-fungal drug Ciclopirox causes HIV-infected cells to commit suicide by jamming up the cells’ powerhouse, the mitochondria, according to a study by researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. And unlike current anti-HIV drugs, Ciclopirox completely eradicates infectious HIV from cell cultures, with no rebound of virus when the drug is stopped.

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Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) discovered that an antibody that binds and neutralizes HIV likely also targets the body’s own “self” proteins. This finding could complicate the development of HIV vaccines designed to elicit this protective antibody, called 4E10, and others like it, as doing so might be dangerous or inefficient.

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Pinning down an effective way to combat the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, the viral precursor to AIDS, has long been challenge task for scientists and physicians, because the virus is an elusive one that mutates frequently and, as a result, quickly becomes immune to medication. A team of Drexel University researchers is trying to get one step ahead of the virus with a microbicide they’ve created that can trick HIV into “popping” itself into oblivion.

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AIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes announced its research article highlights from the October issue now available on the journal website. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Now, a team of researchers led by Dr. David N. Levy, Associate Professor of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD), have discovered a new way that HIV-1 reproduces itself which could advance the search for new ways to combat infection.

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A team of Chinese and US scientists has determined the high-resolution atomic structure of a cell-surface receptor that most strains of HIV use to get into human immune cells. The researchers also showed where maraviroc, an HIV drug, attaches to cells and blocks HIV’s entry.

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A major new finding that will significantly advance efforts to create the world’s first antibody-based AIDS vaccine was published today by researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.

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Johns Hopkins scientists have found that levels of certain fats found in cerebral spinal fluid can predict which patients with HIV are more likely to become intellectually impaired.

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A new study demonstrates that an approach that combines behavioral science with social media and online communities can lead to increased AIDS testing and improved health behaviors among men at risk of HIV infection. The approach is also applicable across a variety of diseases.

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SILVER SPRING, MD, Sept. 5, 2013 – HIV seroprevalence among civilian applications continues to decline with rates in 2012 at their lowest level since the U.S. Armed Forces began testing civilian recruits for the disease, according to a new study.

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An ingredient in a medicinal tea brewed from tree bark by tribal healers on the South Pacific island of Samoa — studied by scientists over the last 25 years — is showing significant promise as a drug lead in the long-sought goal of eliminating the AIDS virus from its sanctuaries in the body and thus eradicating the disease, a scientist said here today.

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A culturally tailored HIV prevention program developed and tested by investigators at UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science has been shown to significantly reduce unprotected sex among bisexual black men.

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As part of the largest international research effort ever made to combat tuberculosis, a team of Johns Hopkins and Brazilian experts has found that preventive antibiotic therapy for people with HIV lowers this group’s chances of developing TB or dying.

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A smoking-cessation intervention delivered through mobile phones to HIV/AIDS-positive smokers increased cessation rates compared to standard care, according to research published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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New UAB faculty hopes to implement her successful Ohio HIV/AIDS research, education/prevention program in Birmingham’s African-American churches.

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Typical combinations of anti-HIV medications do not appear to cause language delays in children who where exposed to HIV in the womb and whose mothers took the antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy.

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Johns Hopkins bioethicist and physician Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA, is author of an opinion on the crucial ethical considerations in HIV cure research.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that community-based pharmacies can be effective locations for offering rapid HIV testing, diagnosing HIV, and connecting those who test positive with medical care quickly. The study publishes online today in the August issue of the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs.

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A type of fungus coating much of the stored corn, wheat, rice and nuts in developing countries may be quietly worsening the AIDS epidemic, according to a paper published today in the World Mycotoxin Journal.

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A team of researchers led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA has developed a strategy for inducing a key part of an effective immune response to HIV. At a talk at the American Crystallographic Association meeting in Hawaii, the team will present multiple crystal structures, which like detailed architectural blueprints show how the virus interacts with components of the immune system.

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At the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s men who were married were significantly less likely to die of HIV/AIDS than their single counterparts. For women, marital status had little impact on who was more likely to die of the disease. But race proved to be a significant risk factor.

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People with HIV are more likely to keep their scheduled medical appointments — and their disease under control — if they feel their physician listens, explains things clearly and knows them as a person, not just a “case,” new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

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Age disparities exist in the continuum of care for patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with people younger than 45 years less likely to be aware of their infection or to have a suppressed viral load, according to a report published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

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Biologists from Indiana University and Montana State University have discovered a striking connection between viruses such as HIV and Ebola and viruses that infect organisms called archaea that grow in volcanic hot springs. Despite the huge difference in environments and a 2 billion year evolutionary time span between archaea and humans, the viruses hijack the same set of proteins to break out of infected cells.

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Advances in care, increased focus on LGBT health may explain shift from previous findings.

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Public health officials in New York City have launched a successful program to locate HIV-positive patients who have been "lost to follow-up" and reconnect them with treatment services, reports a study published in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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More than 330 students collaborated to address the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) from the dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and social work schools so far.

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A new mathematical modeling technique reveals HIV virus may be replicating in body even when undetectable in the blood.

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Continuing analysis of an HIV vaccine trial undertaken in Thailand is yielding additional information about how immune responses were triggered and why the vaccine did not protect more people.

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Indiana U. health policy expert Beth Meyerson said the new USPSTF screening guidelines represent an important shift in HIV testing and will result in more HIV screenings, but availability of the tests remains a big unknown.

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Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine find better outcomes for efavirenz over nevirapine in children over age 3.

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Elizabeth D. Lowenthal, M.D., M.S.C.E., of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether there was a difference in time to virological failure between HIV-infected children initiating nevirapine vs. efavirenz-based antiretroviral treatment in Botswana.