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HIV News
Poster HIV-1 Therapy: Most Effective Drugs Researchers have now tracked the effectiveness of 757 three different HIV drug programs in 757 patients for a median of 112 weeks. The most effective treatment was with efavirenz plus two nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors. This three drug program achieved and maintained viral control longer than the other two treatment combinations: lopinavir-ritonavir plus two nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors, or lopinavir-ritonavir plus efavirenz only. At the 96 week testing, 89% of the efavirenz group had fewer than 50 copies of plasma HIV-1 RNA per milliliter, compared to 83% in the lopinavir-ritonavir plus efavirenz only group and 77% in the lopinavir-ritonavir group. Patients in the lopinavir-ritonavir group, also called the NRTI-sparing group (patients were not given any nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors), were most likely to show antiretroviral resistance mutations or HIV drug resistance. While nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors can be more likely to have toxic side effects, in this study, all three groups maintained drug therapy without significant differences (Riddler SA, Class-sparing regimens for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection, New England Journal of Medicine, May 2008). All three HIV treatment programs improved the patient's immune response. Here's more HIV research. HIV News: What Can Mathematics Do For You? Fighting infections with drugs becomes more difficult as infective agents, bacteria and viruses, become inevitably drug-resistant. Researchers have in the last few decades developed "drug cocktails" or mixtures to help prevent drug-resistance and continue to have effective treatments of infections. Some of the drug cocktails have been very beneficial for HIV/AIDS patients. But deciding which drug to use, how many to use, what combination to use, and the amount of each one to use is a formidable job. For example, if only ten drugs were put together in six combinations, there would be approximately a million combinations to test for effectiveness. Now with the help a new mathematical algorithm using a closed-loop optimization modality, researchers from UCLA, California, have been able to identify effective drug combinations rapidly. Instead of going through a million combinations, they have identified effective drug cocktails in less than 30 repetitions. In addition, they have found that these combinations can be effective with 90% reduced dosage (Wong PK, Closed-loop control of cellular functions using combinatory drugs guided by a stochastic search algorithm, Proceedings National Academy Sciences, April 2008). Scientists hope that this mathematical technique will increase effective treatments for individual patients by completely customizing using drugs for diseases. HIV News: HIV Persists In Gut HIV can persist for years in viral reservoirs of lymphatic tissue throughout the body. One rich viral reservoir area of lymphatic tissue is throughout the intestines, called gut-associated lymphatic tissue or GALT. HIV in the gut has been a strong contributor to the life-threatening damage from AIDS. In a small study, scientists intensively tracked HIV-positive individuals using current antiretroviral drugs for almost 10 years. While blood tests showed that their HIV was undetectable, more sensitive tests showed that HIV was persistently replicating throughout the gut lymphatic tissue. The scientists concluded that eliminating HIV from these lymphatic viral reservoirs will need stronger drugs and more research (Chun TW, Persistence of HIV in gut-associated lymphoid tissue despite long-term antiretroviral therapy, Journal of Infectious Diseases, February 2008). Here's more HIV research. HIV News: Copper Stops HIV An inexpensive copper filter has stopped HIV-1 transmission. People worldwide acquire HIV/AIDS not only through sexual transmission, but also through blood transfusions and breast feeding. Up to 50% of the 700,000 cases of mother-child transmissions were attributed to breast feeding in 2001, and between 80,000 and 160,000 new HIV infections annually were attributed to blood transfusions (WHO). Infected blood transfusions are still responsible for 5% to 10% of new HIV infections in developing countries. Now researchers have developed copper filtration which could be used to filter breast milk and blood transfusions. These copper filters have deactivated all HIV-1 isolates tested. Both copper oxide powder filters and copper oxide-impregnated fiber filters were tested. Both cell-free and cell-associated HIV-1 titers were inhibited in a dose dependent manner without cytotoxicity with both filters. For both filters, HIV virus deactivation included all 12 wild-type, drug-resistant laboratory or clinical types, as well as macrophage and T-cell trophic, and clade A, B, or C isolates in a non-strain-specific manner (Borkow G, Deactivation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in medium by copper oxide-containing filters, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2008). If this new cost-effective technology can be successfully applied, it could reduce non-sexual HIV-1 transmission throughout the world. Here's more research about HIV prevention. Check here for HIV news updates. HIV News: Stopping HIV At The Cell Wall Previous research has shown that interferon IFN can use proteins to cause the retention of encapsulated viruses at the cell wall and prevent them from budding off into the blood stream to infect other cells. Those proteins "tether" the virus like sticky Velcro. This process was shown to almost completely block HIV replication in HIV strains lacking a protein called Vpu. This process also protected against Ebola viral release from the cell wall. Unfortunately, when Vpu was expressed, both HIV and Ebola could effectively release viral particles, and infect new cells (Neil SJ, Cell Host and Microbe, 2007). Now, researchers have identified the Velcro-like protein they call "tetherin." Tetherin works as long as the virus does not have Vpu, but even Vpu-deficient viruses can escape the cell wall when tetherin is missing (Neil SJ, Nature, 2008). These discoveries will hopefully open up new areas for viral research and theraputic targets. Here's more HIV prevention research. HIV News: Another Piece Of The Puzzle Researchers from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and the University of Washington, U. S. have reverse engineered a peptide protein that may be able to interfere with HIV replication. One step in HIV reproduction involves the movement of HIV viral RNA out of the nucleus of the infected cell into the cytoplasm for discharge into the host's body, thus spreading the disease. This transport is facilitated by other viral proteins called Rev units. Rev units attach to certain sites on the HIV viral RNA called Rev-responsive elements (RRE). If a chemical could prevent the Rev unit attachment to the RRE, then transport out of the nucleus could be stopped, and the spread of HIV throughout the body could be slowed or even stopped. After many screening steps, the researchers created a hairpin shaped peptide that mimics the Rev units, is recognized by the HIV RNA, binds to the RRE, and displaces the original Rev unit (Robinson J, Angewandte Chemie, 2007). This could potentially block the active Rev units, substituting inert units, and thus stopping the transport of HIV to the rest of the body. Another area of HIV research involves blocking the entry of HIV into new cells. HIV News: Tuberculosis Added To HIV Pandemic Approximately 14 million of the 40 million people with HIV/AIDS also have multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis or extreme drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis. In sub-Saharan Africa, half of all new HIV/AIDS patients are co-infected with TB. Some areas in South Africa have seen drug resistant tuberculosis increase by 600% just between 1996 and 2004. Here's some information on HIV prevention Along with malaria transmitted by mosquitoes (vectors), tuberculosis transmitted through the air and HIV transmitted through sexual and blood/needle contact, are the three most deadly contagious diseases for humanity in our time. HIV News: HAART For HIV Also Protects Brain HAART, or the drug combination known as Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy, is used widely for HIV patients. Now a new study shows that HAART also reduces brain damage from HIV. Researchers tested 53 HIV-positive men and women for neurofilament light protein in their cerebrospinal fluid, a biomarker for brain damage. Twenty-one showed high levels. There were improvements after only three months on HAART. After one year of treatment, 17 of the 21 showing high levels of neurofilament light protein were down to normal levels (Mellgren A, Neurology, 2007). When the HIV infection damages the brain, it can also cause AIDS-related dementia which complicates the care of the patient. Here is research on how green tea might protect against AIDS-related dementia. HIV News: HIV Patients: Lives Of Chaos A new study at UCLA found that HIV patients who tested highest for chaotic or unpredictable daily lives also received reduced HIV treatment. The high scoring HIV positive patients tended to lack spouses or partners, or basic needs like transportation or housing (Wong M, Journal General Internal Medicine, 2007). The long term effect of reduced or interrupted HIV treatment programs is not yet determined. 20 years research on green tea and HIV prevention here. HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest pandemics the world has known, with over 40 million people currently infected and approximately 25 million deaths since 1981 (Avert.org.).
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