An effective response of the immune system’s “killer” T cells against infection with HIV may depend on exactly which viral protein is targeted, according to an international group of researchers. A new study finds that HIV-infected individuals in whom virus-specific CD8 T cells are targeted against the Gag protein have lower viral levels than do those with CD8 responses directed against other viral proteins.
When it comes to an immune response against HIV, research funded by the Wellcome Trust in the UK and the National Institutes of Health in the US has found that bigger is not necessarily better, contrary to conventional medical wisdom. The research may have a profound impact on the development of a vaccine against the disease.
Imminent arrival of latest HIV drug darunavir, when combined with FUZEON, will give treatment-experienced patients a better chance to achieve undetectable viral load.
Scientists have discovered that induction of a gene known as MDA-7/IL-24 is the molecular mechanism that enables nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to halt the growth of cancer cells, a finding that could eventually lead to the development of targeted cancer treatments.
With two more persons succumbing to Encephalitis, the death toll due to the deadly disease has gone up to 389 since April one this year, official sources said.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a new website today offering technologies available for commercial licensing that are related to rare diseases or conditions. The listing can be found at http://www.ott.nih.gov/rarediseases and currently consists of more than 500 such technologies, including drugs, biologics, and devices, available to be transferred from the NIH and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the private sector for further research and development and potential commercialization.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin have identified a novel antiviral peptide that may inhibit influenza viruses including the H5N1 strain. They report their findings in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Virology.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered two molecular pathways that regulate the organization of heterochromatin, the nucleolus, and other features of nuclear architecture that maintain genome stability in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
Malaria may be helping spread the AIDS virus across Africa, the continent hardest hit by the incurable disease. The way the two diseases interact greatly expands the prevalence of both among people in sub-Saharan Africa, a team of scientists said in a study in the journal Science.
Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and their colleagues in the WHO Global Laboratory Network have developed a new tool for pathogen surveillance and discovery — the GreeneChip System. The GreeneChip is the first tool to provide comprehensive, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites.