Cytokines and growth factors can improve the effectiveness of DNA HIV vaccines although they have little effect on the type of induced immune responses, researchers in the United States say.
The makeup of antigen-specific memory T-cell populations influences viral load in the acute phase of HIV infection, according to researchers in the United States.
Researchers in the United States have developed a simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) variant for studying potential HIV vaccines tailored to African strains of the virus.
Researchers in New York City have presented evidence in favor of the controversial use of simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV)-based models for HIV vaccine testing.
Low-molecular-weight spirodiketopiperazine derivatives can prevent cell entry by R5 strains of HIV, according to researchers in Japan and the United States.
Helper T cells that recognize the HIV Gag protein play a significant role in the body's immune response to the virus, according to researchers in the United States.
In heterosexual couples where one partner is HIV positive, viral load, or the amount of detectable virus in the blood, is a much stronger predictor of the risk of transmission in women than in men, according to a study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Researchers at the University of Utah and Myriad Genetics, Inc., have found how the AIDS virus usurps a cell's normal machinery to leave one cell and infect others - a discovery that eventually could lead to new drugs to control the disease in infected people.
The nucleotide analog adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) can affect the frequency of HIV reverse transcriptase mutations conferring increased drug resistance although the impact may not be significant, according to researchers in the United States.
HIV infection follows different patterns depending on the means of transmission, which need to be taken into account during vaccine studies, researchers in the United States warn.
Researchers in the United States say that genotypes linked to reduced function of the CCR5 coreceptor, used by most HIV strains for cell entry, appear to confer a natural resistance to HIV infection.
The National Institutes of Health will increase the number of respondents, as well as minority respondents, to its two most important AIDs surveys to gather contemporary information on infection and treatment.
Genetic material from an E. coli-like bacteria and an HIV coat protein can be used to provoke HIV specific immune responses in mice, according to researchers in the United States.
Human Langerhans cells express a functional HIV coreceptor, a finding that may help clarify the mechanisms of HIV transmission, according to researchers in France.
The number of drug-resistant HIV cases has already reached epidemic proportions in San Francisco, but transmission of drug-resistant strains is not to blame, reports a new UCLA/UCSF study in the September 2001 issue of Nature Medicine
Researchers in Delaware warn that severe cases of ingrown toenails have been observed in HIV patients treated with indinavir (IDV) and ritonavir (RTV).
Physicians with high-risk patients who present with symptoms of acute Epstein-Barr virus infection (or infectious mononucleosis) should consider a diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, according to a clinical study published in the August 15, 2001, issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
Researchers in California say that an antiretroviral regimen consisting of four medications taken once a day can provide safe and effective control of HIV infection.
Levels of soluble CD23 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of AIDS patients can be used to diagnose AIDS-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma that has spread to the brain and/or nervous system, researchers in Europe report.
Health care workers providing treatment for adolescents infected with HIV at birth may need to deal with psychological issues stemming from delayed puberty, researchers in Italy say.
Cholesterol is instrumental in HIV's ability to infiltrate cells, and removing this fatty material from a cell's membrane blocks infection, according to a Johns Hopkins study reported in the July 20, 2001, issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.
In preliminary laboratory studies, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have found what could prove to be a slick new weapon in the battle against AIDS: over-the-counter sexual lubricants.
Researchers in the United States have shown that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) reduces the risk of AIDS-related complications and death, even for patients in the advanced stages of the illness.
Planned treatment interruptions after failed antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection can lead to an increase in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) viral population, researchers in California claim.
HIV patients who receive triple-drug therapy to suppress viral levels below the limit of detection frequently experience intermittently detectable HIV RNA in blood plasma, but this does not predict subsequent virologic failure, researchers say.
Even though a hepatitis B vaccine has been available for almost 20 years, the vaccination rate in young gay males is still falling short, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
The HIV protease inhibitor indinavir blocks the differentiation of fat cell precursors into mature cells by interfering with the activity of a crucial regulatory protein, researchers in France say.
Researchers testing an experimental HIV vaccine have injected the first of 40 volunteers in Trinidad for a study sponsored by a U.S. health agency and the French and U.S. manufacturers.
A European study indicates the drug nevirapine, used in AIDS regimens, may cause liver problems, especially in patients with poor liver function, coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), or who have taken other antiretroviral drugs.
Modified versions of the HIV drug foscarnet are effective against drug-resistance viral variants and can even reverse the effects of some resistance-conferring mutations, researchers in the United States report.
Physicians have long suspected that breastfeeding by HIV positive mothers poses substantial health risks to children. However, researchers in Kenya have shown that breastfeeding may be dangerous to infected women as well.
HIV patients who suffer from severe rashes after nelfinavir treatment can be desensitized to the protease inhibitor as with other allergens, researchers in Georgia report.
Using sophisticated post-genomic technology, a team of researchers has looked deep within the body's immune cells and recorded the molecular events triggered by invasion of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), creating a detailed account of the devastating progression of cellular injury following HIV infection.
HIV patients homozygous for a class of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B alleles display natural suppression of viral replication and resistance to AIDS progression, researchers report.
HIV that has become resistant to powerful drugs called protease inhibitors may not be a dire sign of decline after all, researchers from the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, have shown.
Generalist physicians and those with little experience caring for HIV/AIDS patients need expert advice for the increasingly complex process of treating them, suggest the results of a survey of physicians in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York.
Scientists have discovered high levels of HIV in the saliva, spinal fluid, semen and vaginal fluid, as well as in the blood, of patients newly infected by the virus. They believe their work suggests an important strategy for curbing the worldwide epidemic.
Some protease inhibitors are much more likely to induce HIV susceptibility to their cousins after unsuccessful use, according to AIDS researchers in California.
Naturally-occurring genetic variations in HIV-A and HIV-C, the two subtypes of HIV prevalent in Africa, make it harder for inhibitory drugs to bind to the protease, a key protein involved in viral maturation, according to a new report by biologists in The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences of The Johns Hopkins University.
Genotypic-resistance testing (GRT) can successfully point doctors to effective antiretroviral drugs for HIV treatment, according to researchers in Germany.
Children infected with HIV are at risk for enlargement of the aortic root, a problem becoming more prevalent as new treatments prolong their lives, Mt. Sinai Medical Center researchers warn.
An ideal AIDS vaccine might be one that stimulates the cellular immune system so efficiently that, despite repeated exposure to HIV, an individual never shows signs of viremia or even seroconverts against HIV epitopes.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
The independent organization that is overseeing the final-stage clinical trials VaxGen, Inc.'s preventive AIDSVAX vaccine indicated, once again, that the product appears safe and that the trials are being conducted appropriately.
Further study of the Bristol-Myers Squibb's once-daily anti-HIV compound BMS-232632 has determined effective concentrations of the drug designed to ease patients' rigorous dose schedules.
Researchers in France say that a derivative of the antiretroviral HIV drug zidovudine, better known as AZT, is many times more powerful than the original.
The explosive HIV-1 epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is unlikely to be the result of a viral subtype with increased infectivity, according to the results of a study published in the April 14, 2001, issue of the Lancet.
In fighting the body's immune system, HIV owes part of its success to its ability to destroy those cells normally recruited to mount the body's counter-attack against the HIV infected cells. Lying at the crux of such success is a viral protein called Nef, which protects its infected host while simultaneously destroying the neighboring uninfected cells of the immune system, according to scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology.
A prospective study of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) incidence among high-risk cohorts lends support to the idea that HIV-1 vaccine trials would be appropriate and welcomed in these populations in the United States.
For patients with low or moderate HIV loads, the nucleoside analog abacavir is as effective as the protease inhibitor indinavir as part of an antiretroviral cocktail, researchers in Germany report.
Antiretroviral therapy changes the predominant viral phenotype in HIV patients by repressing the more virulent strain found in end-stage disease, researchers in New York report.
The advent of potent antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection has reduced - and possibly eliminated - the need for opportunistic infection prophylaxis, researchers in California argue.
The mechanisms by which the HIV antibody 17b interferes with viral cell entry may aid in the creation of new HIV inhibitors, say researchers in Pennsylvania.
HIV variants that do not need the presence of CD4 for cell entry are less resistant to immune activity than the normal virus, which may account the rarity of such strains, researchers report.
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
A compound that inhibits human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in human immune system cells may eventually provide a new therapeutic approach against the virus by blocking infection at an early stage.
Researchers in California say that postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) - treatment given to prevent HIV infection after possible exposure - can help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
An antiretroviral cocktail combining indinavir, nevirapine, stavudine, and lamivudine can provide substantial viral inhibition in amprenavir-experienced patients, Cornell University researchers report.
AIDS researchers in Wisconsin are alarmed by widespread high-risk sexual behavior in Russia, which they say is accompanied by equally widespread misinformation about HIV transmission.
Chloroquine, commonly used as a treatment for malaria, may also help solve the problem of finding effective HIV drugs affordable for developing countries.
Without supplementary primers, some DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) HIV tests can fail to detect some subtypes of the virus, researchers in Denmark say.
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
A team of academic and government researchers in the United States has reported on a promising new "prime-boost" HIV vaccine approach that is currently on a development fast-track for human clinical trials.
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Neither rifabutin nor rifampin should be used to prevent Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) in HIV patients treated with the protease inhibitor amprenavir, researchers warn.
Another type of white blood cell has been found to provide a safe haven for HIV during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), researchers in Australia report.
Many patients continue to derive immunologic and clinical benefit from antiretroviral therapy even after drug resistance emerges, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.
The drug abacavir can safely increase the potency of combination treatments for HIV positive children who have shown resistance to other therapies, pediatricians say.
The reverse transcriptase inhibitor nevirapine can be safely and effectively used as a salvage therapy for HIV patients who have shown resistance to other antiviral treatments, according to researchers in The Netherlands.
Virologists in The Netherlands warn that new HIV mutants refractory to treatment with nucleoside analogs may threaten the future effectiveness of such remedies.
Researchers in New York have shown that monoclonal antibodies targeting the crucial CCR5 co-receptor can potently and selectively block HIV infection, to an even higher degree than some natural CCR5 ligands.
Biologists in the United States have presented evidence implicating the liver in the excessive lipid levels induced by commonly used treatments for HIV infection.
A small but significant proportion of HIV positive patients treated with antiretroviral therapy will develop life-threatening hyperlactatemia, which may be the result of treatment-induced mitochondrial damage, researchers in France report.
HIV-1 Nef protein, by inducing resistance to macrophage-tropic HIV infection in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), triggers the shift to T-cell-tropic infection portending progression to full-blown AIDS, virologists report.
Researchers in Spain have shown that effective once-a-day dosing regimens are possible for antiretroviral drugs, a finding which may help health care workers increase patient compliance with therapy.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Pathologists in the United States have attempted to clarify the time scale required for anti-retroviral treatments to significantly reduce the plasma levels of HIV-1 in children.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Recent research into the process of HIV cell fusion may lead to novel therapies for inhibiting or shutting down that process, researchers suggest in the journal Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Research parasitologist Simon Agwale, at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), reported at a workshop held in Abuja, Nigeria, that he and his colleagues have developed an experimental HIV-1 vaccine, tailored specifically to help fight AIDS in his native Nigeria.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Gladstone Institute, San Francisco, researchers have developed a new in vivo co-immunoprecipitation assay to investigate the mechanism by which the HIV-1 Nef protein binds to CD4 cells.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
AIDS awareness was a topic of study discussed at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, held in Houston, Texas, in 2000.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
At least 22 people have suffered serious side effects, including liver failure, from taking an AIDS drug that was prescribed to prevent HIV infection in people accidentally exposed to the virus.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
Data from the HIV Prevention Trials Unit of the University of Washington indicate that chances to treat HIV patients early or to prevent HIV infection in at-risk individuals frequently are missed.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Donna E. Shalala on December 20, 2000, released the first-ever U.S. federal standards for protecting the privacy of Americans' personal health records.
Prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports
A study published in the December 22, 2000, issue of AIDS demonstrated for the first time that phenotypic HIV drug resistance testing can detect the emergence of drug resistance prior to a significant increase in viral load in patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy.
ÆGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, iMetrikus, Inc., the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2000. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
ÆGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
