Antiretroviral News and Research

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Newer antiretroviral drugs may be the safest, most effective HIV treatment during pregnancy

The antiretroviral drugs dolutegravir and emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (DTG+FTC/TAF) may comprise the safest and most effective HIV treatment regimen currently available during pregnancy, researchers announced today.

11 Mar 2020

The second person cured from HIV goes public

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the outbreak of HIV and AIDS swept across the globe. Today, more than 70 million people have been infected with HIV, and about 35 million have died from AIDS since the start of the pandemic. However, scientific advances, such as the development of antiretroviral drugs, have enabled people with access to treatment to live long and healthy lives with HIV. But, there is still no vaccine and cure for it. In history, only two persons have been cleared of the infection, one in Berlin and now the second one in London.

10 Mar 2020

Study reports second ever case of a patient to be cured of HIV

A study of the second HIV patient to undergo successful stem cell transplantation from donors with a HIV-resistant gene, finds that there was no active viral infection in the patient's blood 30 months after they stopped anti-retroviral therapy, according to a case report published in The Lancet HIV journal and presented at CROI.

10 Mar 2020

Simple method to prevent HIV greatly increases viral suppression in South Africa, Uganda

In parts of Africa, where the rate of HIV is high, researchers found that using mobile vans to dispense antiretroviral treatment and other care greatly increased viral suppression.

9 Mar 2020

Alcohol Consumption Weakens Bones of People Living with HIV

For people living with HIV, any level of alcohol consumption is associated with lower levels of a protein involved in bone formation, raising the risk of osteoporosis, according to a new study by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health.

3 Mar 2020

New study uncovers human genes controlling HIV infection

Viruses are parasites. The only way they can grow is by hijacking their hosts. When they infect a human host, viruses use human proteins to multiply and modify the human cells to sustain the infection. At the same time, the human host activates defense mechanisms to fight the infection.

20 Feb 2020

Vitamin E can safely treat fatty liver disease in patients with HIV

A type of fatty liver disease that commonly affects patients with HIV can be safely treated with vitamin E, a McGill-led study has found.

16 Feb 2020

To fight Chinese outbreak, doctors deploy drugs targeting HIV, malaria and Ebola

As the scientific community scrambles to find a drug that can effectively treat tens of thousands of patients sickened by a new respiratory virus, they are trying some surprising remedies: medicines targeting known killers like HIV, Ebola and malaria.

13 Feb 2020

Study gives clues on how to stop HIV reemergence

A new study released today in the Journal of Virology gives insights into how the HIV-1 virus, which often persists in the body despite antiretroviral treatment, reemerges when treatment stops. More importantly, the study also gives clues on how to stop this reemergence from occurring.

12 Feb 2020

Study to evaluate safety of PrEP and dapivirine ring in pregnant women

A woman who is eight-months pregnant is the first participant to be enrolled into a study evaluating the safety and acceptability of two different HIV prevention approaches when used during pregnancy -- the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring, which is currently under regulatory review, and a daily antiretroviral (ARV) pill called Truvada, an approach already approved in several countries and commonly referred to as PrEP, short for pre-exposure prophylaxis.

10 Feb 2020

Youth with HIV have lower rates of viral suppression than adults

Despite similar rates of enrollment into medical care, youth with HIV have much lower rates of viral suppression--reducing HIV to undetectable levels--compared to adults, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health.

10 Feb 2020

Investigational HIV vaccine not effective in preventing HIV

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), part of the National Institutes of Health, has stopped administration of vaccinations in its HVTN 702 clinical trial of an investigational HIV vaccine.

3 Feb 2020

HIV antibody therapy improves immune function

A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine in February 2020 reports that the administration of neutralizing antibodies against HIV improve the recipient’s specific T cell responses against the virus.

3 Feb 2020

New, highly potent HIV antibody restricts development of viral resistance

Antiretroviral drugs are the gold standard for the treatment of HIV infection. They are highly effective in suppressing replication of the virus but require lifelong daily application and can be associated with side effects.

31 Jan 2020

New study gives hope for potentially developing a cure for HIV

HIV latency is considered one of the biggest challenges to developing a cure for the virus.

23 Jan 2020

Scientists reverse HIV latency, take major scientific step toward curative therapies

Approximately 38 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, about 1.1 million people in the United States. Currently, people with HIV take antiretroviral therapy (ART), which can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in blood, but the virus persists throughout the body in latently infected resting CD4+ T cells.

22 Jan 2020

Smoking dormant HIV virus out into the open to develop a cure

Ever since antiretroviral treatments against HIV infection were introduced in 1996, scientists have eagerly been hunting for a cure for the disease.

9 Jan 2020

Timing is key: preventing infant SHIV infection by PEP

Researchers tested methods to prevent development of SHIV, an infection similar to HIV, in infant macaque monkeys.

9 Jan 2020

Single dose of antibody-based treatment can beat HIV in newborn babies

A single dose of an antibody-based treatment can prevent HIV transmission from mother to baby, new nonhuman primate research suggests for the first time. The findings are being published in the journal Nature Communications.

7 Jan 2020

ART may not be completely effective in restoring immune protection, study suggests

A study led by researchers from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and Oregon Health & Science University, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, showed that, despite successful antiretroviral therapy, antigen specific memory to vaccinations that occurred before HIV infection did not recover, even after immune reconstitution.

6 Jan 2020