Experimental Treatment
Can Soybeans Inhibit HIV?
11 years ago
A product from the soybean plant may be able to provide a treatment for HIV that could prove to be effective. Current therapies face resistance issues that are common to drugs that have been on the market for a while. Could that make soybeans the key to a new HIV therapy?
According to a recent study, it certainly shows promise. It’s important to note, however, that eating a great deal of soy products isn’t necessarily the solution to treating HIV. When you eat soy products, you get some genistein (the compound has been found to have an HIV-inhibiting effect), but whether or not the amount from ingesting soybeans is anywhere near enough is still up in the air and is hoped to be the subject of further study.
Genistein works by blocking the lines of communication between the sensors that are on the surface of a cell and those in the interior of the cell. HIV tricks exterior cell sensors into helping it spread throughout the body, thus making genistein an important compound in combating the disease.
Since genistein doesn’t actually fight the virus, it leaves little opportunity for the virus to build up a resistance in any way. Another major advantage is that a plant-based treatment should have far fewer side effects than current treatments. A combination of the highly toxic drugs that are presently used can cause HIV to mutate, which may ultimately result in resistance to the treatment.
Right now, the order of business is to determine how much genistein is necessary to fight HIV. Then it can be determined if a dietary change can be effective or if the compound will have to be mass produced as a medication. While budget cuts are threatening to limit further research, fundraisers will attempt to save the day. Previous fundraisers have proven successful, and it is hoped that the research can continue as planned.
Correlation Between HIV Worsening and Gut Bacteria
11 years ago
Why do some HIV patients who experience great success from treatments still die younger than the average life expectancy? The reason may lie in the intestines. The bacteria that exists in the gut can increase inflammation that was originally related to the body’s fight against HIV.
Antiretroviral drugs can now help HIV patients to keep from having their immune system completely compromised, thus leading to a normal life span. But whether a person has HIV or not, inflammation can lead to serious health conditions such as heart problems, weight issues and mental deterioration.
HIV causes this sort of inflammation in individuals regardless of whether or not they receive treatment for the condition throughout their entire life. What lets HIV hang around in a patient even when treatment is successful? While this has been a subject of longtime research, the area of study is moving to the intestinal tract.
The idea for the research came from the concept that someone with HIV may have altered gut flora in some way as a result of the condition. The study involved considering samples from those who were infected with the disease but were not undergoing treatment, others who were receiving various forms of treatment and, finally, individuals without the disease as a control group.
What was the verdict? The flora found within the gut of an HIV patient is significantly different from that of a person who does not have the disease. More of the bacteria found in the intestines of the HIV patients was harmful bacteria that can create dangerous inflammation.
Researchers do not yet have a way to restore balance to the gut that has undergone such a drastic change, but more research is underway. Prospects are hopeful that treating this gut condition along with HIV will be the key to keeping HIV patients from suffering from a premature loss of life. It is also hoped that such advancements may allow for treatments that do not need to continue for someone’s entire life in order to hold the disease at bay.
Antiretrovirals Can’t Halt Spread of HIV
11 years ago
by ADMIN
in Experimental Treatment
If a person is being treated for HIV, does it prevent spread of the disease? Not necessarily – in fact, even when antiretroviral treatments appear to have stopped replication of the disease within a man’s blood, it doesn’t mean the disease isn’t traveling along with his semen during sex. Especially in cases where a man has other diseases besides HIV the disease can easily be spread via unsafe intercourse.
Don’t take this to mean that such treatments don’t helping – some who are receiving antiretroviral treatments may no longer have any signs of the disease in their blood at all, but this alone does not mean anyone is “cured” from the disease. It does however mean that they are far less likely to give the disease to someone else – yet even then it doesn’t completely prevent transmission. It reduces the likelihood of transmission greatly, but with a disease like HIV any odds of transmission are too high to risk.
A new study performed amongst more than 100 practicing homosexual men has shed further light on the subject. The study revealed that over 10% of the men in the study still had HIV in their semen, despite blood samples tested as clean. More than half of these men had been transmitters of the disease despite treatment were also suffering from other conditions, specifically various forms of herpes.
So what is the connection between herpes and HIV in the semen? It seems to have to do with herpes activating the immune system – genital herpes causes the body to send additional T-cells and other antibodies to the genitals; these immune cells are typically used by HIV to travel around the body without detection. The result of this is infected sperm. These results show that if treatment of HIV is to also succeed in prevent transmission, the body must also be free of other such diseases that can help it to hide and spread.
Synthetic Agents Used to Weaken HIV
11 years ago
by ADMIN
in Experimental Treatment
HIV spreads progressively in specific types of cells, often resisting treatment, and one result is chronic inflammation. Researchers are working on an anti-inflammatory treatment that will attack HIV in the immune system cells that it tends to infect.
While antiretroviral treatments are beginning to give HIV patients a more normal lifespan, it is still a crucial time for this new treatment to be developed – the fact is that antiretroviral drugs don’t cure the disease. They can increase a person’s life span, but how is quality of life affected when the virus has many more years to replicate within the body? Inflammation can reach such severe levels that other complications are caused. Such inflammation is also suspected to be associated with the neurocognitive symptoms of HIV.
The CB2 receptor – a protein found on the surface of an immune cell known as a macrophage – may help block central nervous system inflammation. The way this protein is affected by the active ingredient in cannabis may have provided vital data on the prevention of neurocognitive complications.
So why did the researchers focus on macrophages, when it is commonly thought that T cells are the HIV’s immune system hiding spot? Macrophages perform a very specific duty in the body – they are just one of the body’s many types of WBCs (white blood cells), and they are responsible for entrapping and destroying numerous invading cells. Since these cells travel to every part of the human body it is suspected that macrophages are a means by which HIV spreads, including into the brain, thus the potential for neurocognitive symptoms resulting from infected macrophages.
In the studies that were performed a specific enzyme present in HIV replication was observed – in just one week it was revealed that the compound used to activate the CB2 protein was indicating positive results in slowing the spread of HIV. The researchers have therefore proposed that these drugs be administered additional to antiretroviral treatment. The research also supports the notion that the human immune system can be successful in partly counteracting the effects of HIV.
Using these compounds researchers hope to stimulate the body’s natural defenses to counteract HIV symptoms – and while still not a cure, these compounds could continue to enhance the life quality of HIV sufferers.
Researchers Discover HIV Helps Creates Unique Antibodies
11 years ago
Is an HIV vaccination in the future? That’s what researchers are hoping for although it is still a long way off. In Nature Medicine (October 22 issue) a study was published in which two women from South Africa who have HIV were discovered to have a unique cover to the disease, which was then harvested in an attempt to create antibodies. Those antibodies were successful at destroying 88 percent of the types of HIV it was introduced to. It is hoped to be the key to a future vaccine.
The study has been going on for about five years already. Various researchers from the NICD in Johannesburg, Witz University, the University of Cape Town, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal have all joined forces to study the unique antibody responses that have been found in certain HIV patients. Because these antibodies can kill a wide range of HIV strands from across the globe they are referred to as being “broadly neutralizing.”
Professor Lynn Morris and Dr. Penny Moore have found glycan, a type of sugar, placed in a particular spot on the protein cover of the virus makes it vulnerable to the body’s natural antibody response. This has taken years of study to discover.
Obviously the prospect of these discoveries turning into a vaccine is an exciting one for scientists. HIV is a worldwide scourge, and a vaccination would save countless lives. Broadly neutralizing antibodies are an important part of such a vaccine since the virus has so many unique strains around the globe.
This is the first time that researchers were able to figure out how these antibodies are made. They were first identified just three years ago, although their existence has been known for quite some time. The discovery this research team has made is significant because knowing the process by which the antibodies are made is a key in being able to recreate them. The researchers were able to track the progression of the disease in the two women studied. This allowed them to find a weakness in the disease that had not existed when they were first infected.
Over time their bodies produced various antibodies that are found in all people to fight off various diseases. Over years of time, this places pressure on the HIV causing it to reveal its weak point. Two thirsds of people infected with subtype C HIV, the most common type in Africa, will have the vulnerability at this same position (it is being called position 332). While being a big step forward, this still leaves a vaccination in the distant future. After all, if only two thirds of one subtype of the disease are vulnerable to glycan on position 332, then vaccines will likely have to be able to attack multiple targets to defeat the virus. This will take more study.
