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New Approach Stops HIV At Earliest Stage Of Infection |
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Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 budding from cultured lymphocyte. (Credit: C. Goldsmith) ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008) — Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a new two-punch strategy against HIV and they have already successfully tested aspects of it in the laboratory. Their study, which appears in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may re-energize attempts to create a preventive/therapeutic vaccine against HIV, say the authors. To date, more than a dozen candidate vaccines, which have attempted to raise immunity against the spiky proteins on the viral envelope, have all failed in clinical testing. |
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Microbicides - another setback? |
February 21st 2008
Reference: aidsmapnews@nam.org.uk
On Monday the Population Council announced that its phase III study of the microbicide Carraguard had failed to reduce the risk of HIV infection among women who received it in a big, placebo-controlled study. The reason for the failure to protect women is still unclear. Did the microbicide fail to protect women who used it 100% of the time, or just women who used it less frequently? We don't know yet, and nor do we know why women used Carraguard irregularly - but we will find out. The Population Council is to be congratulated for building into its study a way to independently measure adherence to microbicide use, and this will enable these questions to be answered. |
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Scientists Find New Receptor for H.I.V. |
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By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, NY Times, February 11, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO — Government scientists have discovered a new way that H.I.V. attacks human cells, an advance that could provide fresh avenues for the development of additional therapies to stop AIDS, they reported on Sunday. The discovery is the identification of a new human receptor for H.I.V. The receptor helps guide the virus to the gut after it gains entry to the body, where it begins its relentless attack on the immune system.
The findings were reported online Sunday in the journal Nature Immunology by a team headed by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. |
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