Scientists have identified a new way to reactivate latent HIV, which could help overcome one of the biggest obstacles to finding a cure for the deadly virus. Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes found that increasing the random activity, or noise, associated with HIV gene expression – without increasing the average level of gene expression – can reactivate latent HIV.
Using advanced tools to probe B-cell responses to HIV and other pathogens in the laboratory, the researchers found that the B cells that make antibodies to HIV in infected, untreated people are abnormal in that they are more activated, unstable and unresponsive to further stimulation than normal B cells, and also are infrequently observed in healthy people. This finding may help explain why HIV-specific antibodies naturally produced by HIV-infected people do not clear the infection, according to the scientists.
Out of 90 vaccine attempts, only 5 vaccine candidates were worthy of progressing to phase two or phase three human efficacy trials, and of those five, only two vaccines continue in clinical trials today — one in this country and one in South Africa. But we can’t stop now.
New research from the University of Cambridge has now made it possible to reduce a person’s daily medication needs down to only two semiannual injections. This twice-per-year drug delivery system would not only be much more convenient for people suffering from conditions like diabetes and HIV/AIDS, but might also increase people’s long-term adherence to their prescribed drug regimens.
The first direct proof of a long-suspected cause of multiple HIV-related health complications was recently obtained by a team led by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research (CVR). The study also found that a non-HIV drug may help address the problem.
Adolescents and young people (AYA) aged 12 – 24 in Africa and Asia are more likely to be adherent to antiretroviral therapy (ART) than their counterparts in North America and Europe, according to research published in AIDS this week. The study points to the fact that the HIV epidemics in North America and Europe are concentrated among key populations who are often marginalised from society, meaning they are hidden and have inadequate access to HIV services, such as treatment.
Adolescents and young people (AYA) aged 12 – 24 in Africa and Asia are more likely to be adherent to antiretroviral therapy (ART) than their counterparts in North America and Europe, according to research published in AIDS this week. The study points to the fact that the HIV epidemics in North America and Europe are concentrated among key populations who are often marginalised from society, meaning they are hidden and have inadequate access to HIV services, such as treatment.
I have been fascinated with open relationships for more than 10 years. Africa is not traditionally monogamous and is no stranger to polyamory (loving more than one person at a time). Our own ‘prez’ has 4 wives and has been married six times. Initially I believed open relationships to be wrong, dangerous and not for me…
With the upscaling of South Africa’s HIV treatment programme necessitating task-shifting and the decentralisation of the South African healthcare system, nurses have become the backbone of public health, with most healthcare service centres being run entirely by nurses, with the support of visiting doctors.
To mark International Nurses Day on 12 May 2014, Anova is celebrating its nurses, and the work it does with nurses in the public health sector through its Health Systems Strengthening activities.
Sound science takes time. As Richard Jefferys of Treatment Action Group explained in a recent webinar, “HIV Cure Research—Getting Past the Media Hype,” a number of clinical trials are underway in the quest for an HIV cure, but none of the interventions currently under study are expected to cure people of HIV. Rather, those studies provide essential information to get cure science to “the next round” of development, said Jefferys.
Jefferys and webinar co-host David Evans, director of research advocacy at Project Inform and community advisory board member with the Delaney AIDS Research Enterprise, unpacked the concept of “cure,” outlined the types of cure currently under study, and highlighted key questions at the heart of cure research today.