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AIDS expert says global strategy needed to combat feminization of HIV/AIDS

Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., a Johns Hopkins physician and scientist, who has spent the best part of the last 25 years leading major efforts to combat HIV and AIDS throughout the world, is calling for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic.

10 Jun 2005

Exercise helps recovery after chemotherapy for breast cancer

Exercise after chemotherapy for breast cancer boosted the activity of infection-fighting T cells in women who worked out regularly, according to data from a study conducted at Penn State University under the direction of Andrea Mastro, professor of microbiology and cell biology.

10 Jun 2005

Researchers discover how hepatic-C virus evades immune system in acute and chronic infections

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered how a majority of the genetic changes in the hepatic-C virus, the most common cause of liver disease, allow it to evade the body's immune system during infection.

10 Jun 2005

Urgent call for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic

In an article appearing in the journal Science online June 10, Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at Hopkins and a senior investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, reports that women have in the last 20 years moved from those least affected by HIV to those in whom the disease is spreading fastest.

10 Jun 2005

Findings could lead to a new approach in diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease

The human body has its own defense against brain aging: the innate immune system, which helps to clean the brain of amyloid-beta waste products. However, UCLA researchers discovered that some patients with Alzheimer’s disease have an immune defect making it difficult to clean away these wastes.

From MP Biomedicals, LLC 10 Jun 2005

Multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri could be back on the market later in the year

The drug Tysabri which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of multiple sclerosis in November 2004, was taken off the market in late February, after two cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, appeared in patients given the drug during clinical trials.

9 Jun 2005

Promising new vaccine candidate to prevent middle ear infections

Hoping to prevent ear infections for the more than 15 million children in the United States who suffer from them, a promising new vaccine candidate to prevent middle ear infections (otitis media) is being developed by researchers at the Columbus Children’s Research Institute (CCRI) on the campus of Columbus Children’s Hospital.

9 Jun 2005

Rituximab, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is safe and effective

Professor Paul Emery from the University of Leeds in the UK led the DANCER study (Double blind placebo controlled dose ranging study), designed to confirm the efficacy of rituximab for the treatment of patients with active RA who have failed to improve on one or more disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

9 Jun 2005

Rituximab provides new hope for people with lupus

Rheumatologists at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Vienna, Austria heard today (Thursday 9 June) that rituximab is the first drug in a quarter of a century that is making a real impact, and an alternative to previous standard treatments of high-dose steroids, and chemotherapy.

9 Jun 2005

Superbug possibly the same as US killer strain

Microbiologists at the Health Protection Agency suspect that the superbug which has already caused 12 deaths at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, may be the same strain that has spread in many American hospitals since 2001, and killed more than 100 patients in Quebec, Canada, last year.

8 Jun 2005

Detox diets unsound science and do not work

Scientists say there is no proof that Detox diets work and they do no more to rid the body of toxins than the body's own natural system.

8 Jun 2005

Diversity of HLA genotypes in humans is shaped to a significant degree by pathogens

The great physical diversity that evolution has forged in human beings is in evidence wherever we look, but the genes exhibiting the greatest diversity at the DNA level happen to function in a wholly invisible process: immunity. Genes encoding the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) proteins are among the most diverse in the human genome, and scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why.

6 Jun 2005

Gene therapy for arthritis is both feasible and safe

Gene therapy for arthritis and other non-terminal, debilitating conditions and diseases is both feasible and safe, report researchers who conducted the world's first such test on the approach in patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis.

6 Jun 2005

New process removes allergy potential from peanut products

Scientists say a special fermentation process may significantly reduce the potential for allergic reaction to peanut products.

6 Jun 2005

Patients with advanced heart failure significantly improved after receiving stem cell therapy

The study showed, 30 days after receiving the stem cells by injection into their hearts, patients improved an average of 41 percent in their hearts' pumping efficiency and the distance they could walk nonstop increased by 72 percent in a standard test widely used to assess heart patients.

6 Jun 2005

Gene linked to lower breast cancer risk

In a presentation at the 2nd ESMO Scientific & Educational Conference (ESEC) in Budapest, Hungary, Dr. Uwe Langsenlehner and colleagues from Medical University Graz in Austria showed that a specific genetic variation in a cytokine gene is associated with lower breast cancer risk.

6 Jun 2005

Scientists develop vaccines against the Ebola and Marburg viruses

Scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada - with assistance from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases - have developed vaccines against the Ebola and Marburg viruses that have been shown to be effective in non-human primates.

5 Jun 2005

Whooping cough vaccine may be introduced in New Zealand

The New Zealand's Ministry of Health has confirmed, as a whooping cough epidemic continues to sweep the country, that a new vaccine to control the spread of whooping cough may be introduced next year.

5 Jun 2005

Research findings suggest new treatment strategies for patients with cystic fibrosis

Cells sent to fight infections in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients actually enhance the development of permanent bacterial infections, according to researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

3 Jun 2005

Research shows how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes

In the latest version of the hide-and-seek game between pathogens and the hosts they infect, researchers have found that a virus appears to cloak itself with a recently discovered gene silencing device to evade detection and destruction by immune cells.

3 Jun 2005

Immune System News and Research

AIDS expert says global strategy needed to combat feminization of HIV/AIDS

Exercise helps recovery after chemotherapy for breast cancer

Researchers discover how hepatic-C virus evades immune system in acute and chronic infections

Urgent call for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic

Findings could lead to a new approach in diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s disease

Multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri could be back on the market later in the year

Promising new vaccine candidate to prevent middle ear infections

Rituximab, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is safe and effective

Rituximab provides new hope for people with lupus

Superbug possibly the same as US killer strain

Detox diets unsound science and do not work

Diversity of HLA genotypes in humans is shaped to a significant degree by pathogens

Gene therapy for arthritis is both feasible and safe

New process removes allergy potential from peanut products

Patients with advanced heart failure significantly improved after receiving stem cell therapy

Gene linked to lower breast cancer risk

Scientists develop vaccines against the Ebola and Marburg viruses

Whooping cough vaccine may be introduced in New Zealand

Research findings suggest new treatment strategies for patients with cystic fibrosis

Research shows how a virus uses the gene silencing machinery for its own infectious purposes

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