HIV Science
Personal Lubricants Damage Cells But Don’t Increase Risk of HIV Infection
11 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Science
A study has shown that while lubricants may dry out and irritate the vagina or anus, it doesn’t expose a person to greater risk of HIV infection. PLoS ONE is the journal that published the study. Researchers, however, wish to do further study on the effects that personal lubricants have on the human body, particularly the epithelial tissue. This layer of cells is first line of defense that the body has against diseases like HIV.
Hyperosmolar lubricants did the most damage of all of the types included in the study according to Charlene S. Dezzutti, PhD, who was the lead author of the study. Despite this fact, it still seemed to have no ill effects on HIV risk.
The salts, proteins, and carbs are present in high amounts of hyperosmolar lubricants, but in smaller amounts in the vagina and anus, seem to be responsible for the damage to tissue with use. On the other hand, iso-osmolar lubes have a similar balance as epithelial cells.
The study included 14 different lubricant types. Some were over the counter, some were brand name, and others were mail order. The bases for these lubricants were either water, silicone, or lipid. A survey of 6300 individuals showed that the types of lubricants studied were more frequently used for anal intercourse. Water based hyperosmolar lubricants did the most cellular damage. Water based iso-osmolr lubes did the least damage. Even the most damaged vaginal tissue was not more vulnerable to HIV even after exposure to these types of lubes. Further research is being done with rectal cells.
Despite results so far, Dr. Dezzutti is not yet convinced of the safety of these lubricants and says that more testing is needed. NIAID (the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development all helped to fund the study.
HIV May Be Slowed By a Gene
11 years ago
Infectious diseases like TB, HIV, and Hep C are difficult to combat. But the secret may lie in the same gene that keeps a person alive when they first begin to form in their mother’s womb. It is the same gene that tells our immune system when to turn on or off to fight a particular disease.
So what does this mean for the medical field? When it comes to diseases that overload the body’s immune system like HIV and many autoimmune disorders, this discovery can be a great step forward. Two doctors who headed the research just had their study published in November.
The gene that has been isolated has what may be considered the most important immune system task. It decides if a situations deserves an immune response or not. The wrong decision can have a seriously adverse effect on the body. Needless attacks result in autoimmune responses that injure the body. But failure to alert the immune system to legitimate threats can obviously result in great damage as well.
HIV and other diseases like it are so deadly because they have found ways to avoid the body’s immune response. This is a survival adaptation of the disease, but for the person infected it can be fatal. The idea behind the research done on this particular gene is that it can fight diseases with this type of amativeness.
The doctors are currently looking at the effect of turning this gene’s response on and off in the fight against certain disease. Seeing the results can help them to identify more fully the role that this gene plays in fighting disease as well as how to use it to overcome diseases that thus far have outwitted the human immune system.
The reason for all of the research is that this gene plays such a critical role. The doctors want to be certain of the effects a drug targeting its function would have on the body as a whole. If manipulating the gene fought one disease but compromised the immune system, it would still not help the patient in the long run. Because of this, any drugs involving the gene are still a number of years away. Despite this fact, it is still an exciting discovery.
Correlation Between HIV Treatment and Recurrent Malaria
11 years ago
According to the NIH, children with HIV who are receiving treatment are 40 percent less likely to suffer from recurring malaria. The study was done in Uganda using children age six and under. Some were just infants (over 170 of them, in fact). The study group was compared to a group of children receiving a different treatment.
The treatment that stopped malaria from recurring was a protease blocker. It slows the spread of HIV by blocking that particular enzyme. While the treatment seemed to make it less likely for malaria to reoccur, it did not prevent the children from getting the disease the first time.
The children were also receiving drugs to try and prevent them from getting malaria. When blood tests were done on the children, it was noticed that the ones receiving the protease treatment had more of the anti malaria medicine in their system.
This is not the first study that has been done on this particular HIV treatment. Previous research was conducted to prove the effectiveness of the drug combination in slowing the progress of HIV. However, it is not the first drug promoted by the WHO for HIV treatment in poor nations. Why not? For one thing, the treatment needs to be refrigerated. Because of this, medical facilities in many poor nations cannot afford the resources to keep a supply on hand. It also does not taste very good, which makes it more difficult to get children to take it.
Other variables in the study included the children being given a mosquito net to keep them from being infected in their sleep. These nets had mosquito repellent on them. All the children also received a regular supply of vitamins. Clean water was provided, so that water quality would not affect the outcome of the study.
Even with the best efforts of the individuals conducting the study, it was still noted that about two fifths of the children contracted malaria within half a year. The discrepancies, however, began to be noticed in those who survived the first round. Receiving the standard HIV treatment had the same two fifths chance of getting the disease again in the next four weeks. Of the children taking protease inhibitors, only 14 percent contracted the disease again. After two months, there was still a stark contrast in recurrent cases.
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.
Does HIV Somehow Fight Liver Disease?
11 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Science
It may in African American women. Researchers have discovered that when African American women have both HIV and Hep C they are less likely to die from the liver disease than Hispanic or Caucasian women. Hepatology published the study results in its November issue.
Approximately 5 million Americans have Hepatitis C—of those five million, about 4 million have the virus active in their blood. It was also found that about one third of people with HIV also had HCV (Hepatitis C virus). In fact, HCV is the second leading killer among those who are infected with HIV. But an anomaly has been found in the way the diseases interact in African American women. While it is far more difficult to treat HCV in African American women who have HIV, they are also far less likely to die from HCV complications than those of other races.
Why the difference? Dr. Monika Sarkar, who is heading up the current study, admits that researchers do not yet know the reason behind this phenomenon. This is despite the fact that much research has already been done on how Hep C develops in people of various races. The study is currently being conducted at UCSF (University of California at San Francisco).
794 patients were a part of the study. The research was funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health). The study included 495 African Americans, 140 Caucasians, and 159 Hispanics, all of whom were infected with both HIV and HCV. Check ups were conducted twice a year and included interviews and also clinical testing.
During the 9 years of study, 438 of the patients died. The deaths were fairly even across the races (56% of African Americans and Caucasians, 52% of Hispanics). The difference was in cause of death. While liver disease killed 21% of the Hispanics and 14% of the Caucasians, the death rate of African American patients due to liver disease was a mere 8%. Further studies are now being done to see the reason for discrepancy between race and the disease. Perhaps this will result in a means to control liver disease in HIV patients of other races more effectively.
