Alphabetical list:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Q Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
News: November 23, 2009
Genetic Variant Slows AIDS Progression
November 23, 2009Scientists report that a genetic variation appears to play a major role in slowing disease progression in HIV-infected patients.
In fact, those with the variation appear to take years longer to develop AIDS and die of complications of the disease.
"We're honing in on factors that vary across individuals that make a person more or less susceptible to HIV, in terms of how rapidly someone develops the disease," said study co-author Mary Carrington, a senior principal investigator at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
However, this new knowledge won't translate into immediate benefits for patients with HIV.
AIDS remains a major killer in many parts of the world, but HIV - the virus that causes it - doesn't affect infected people the same way. "People progress to AIDS at hugely different rates," Carrington explained. "Some people progress within a year, while some have been infected for 20 years and still control the virus and don't have the disease."
It appears that three factors affect how the disease strikes a person, she said. One is the environment: the world in which a person lives. Another is the patient's genetic makeup. And the third is the genetic makeup of the virus itself.
In the study, published in the Nov. 22 online edition of Nature Genetics, Carrington and colleagues looked at genetic and medical records for hundreds of HIV-infected men. They were trying to see if genetic variations affected how the men fared.
The researchers found that a variation linked to higher levels of a protein known as HLA-C boosted the men's ability to avoid progressing to AIDS. It appeared to delay both the progression to AIDS and to death by years, Carrington said.
The genetic variation makes it easier for the immune system to kill cells that have been infected with the virus, she said. It does this by allowing immune cells to gain greater access to the infected cells, she explained.
Carrington said this genetic variation isn't related to another gene-related trait that makes some people virtually immune to HIV.
The study "hints at ways we might ultimately develop a vaccine or immune-based therapies that could modify or maybe even prevent the development of HIV disease," said Rowena Johnston, vice president of research with the Foundation for AIDS Research in New York City.
"The finding that a single piece of DNA can be strongly associated with something as complex as the control of HIV soon after infection is especially intriguing, not least because we know that early control of infection sets the stage for the entire course of the disease," Johnston noted.
What's next? The ultimate goal, Carrington said, is "to have a complete list of every genetic variance that is affecting how rapidly the disease develops."
That, in turn, could help physicians figure out how to better treat patients.
Archive issues: (50)
Archive list: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [10] 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
November 17, 2009 | Consumer Reports Finds BPA in Common Canned FoodsIn the upcoming December 2009 magazine, Consumer Reports details the testing they have done on dozens of canned food products such as soups, juice, tuna fish and vegetables, for the chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA. The products tested included 19 of the most common brand names such as Campbell's, Chef Boyardee, Del Monte, Nestle, and Progresso. BPA is a ...
November 16, 2009 | Steroid Concern Prompts Bodybuilding Supplement RecallIn a press release issued November 3, 2009, Bodybuilding.com LLC, an online supplement retailer, announced that it was conducting a voluntary recall of 65 dietary supplements that were sold through the company's website. The recall is for all lots and expiration dates sold both ...
November 15, 2009 | Breastfeeding Benefits Updated by the American Dietetic AssociationThe health benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and their mothers have been updated and explained in a newly released position paper by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). The ADA strongly encourages breastfeeding whenever possible, noting that it is the "optimal feeding method for the infant." When one looks at the statistics on breastfeeding in the United States, the figures are disappointing. The Centers for Disease Control and ...
Related articles:
History
The earliest attempts at treating erectile dysfunction date back to Muslim physicians and pharmacists in the medieval Islamic world. They were the first to prescribe medication for the treatment of this problem, and they developed several methods of therapy for this issue, including a single-drug therapy method where a drug was prescribed and a "combination method of either a drug or food." Most of ...Section: Erectile Dysfunction
Chronic bacterial prostatitis - treatment
Treatment requires prolonged courses (4-8 weeks) of antibiotics that penetrate the prostate well (?-lactams and nitrofurantoin are ineffective). These include quinolones (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin), sulfas (Bactrim, Septra) and macrolides (erythromycin, clarithromycin). Persistent infections may be helped in 80% of patients by the use of alpha blockers (tamsulosin (Flomax), alfuzosin), or long term low dose antibiotic ...Section: Prostatitis
About interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome
Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (commonly abbreviated to "IC/PBS"), is a urinary bladder disease of unknown cause characterised by pain associated with urination (dysuria), urinary frequency (as often as every 10 minutes), urgency, and pressure in the bladder and/or pelvis. Pain that worsened with a ...Section: Interstitial cystitis