Current HIV Research - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2009

Drug use and HIV/AIDS are global public health issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 30% of HIV infections are related to drug use and associated behaviors. The intersection, of the twin epidemics of HIV and drug/alcohol use, results in difficult medical management issues for the health care providers and researchers who work in the expanding global HIV prevention and treatment fields. Access to c Read More

The spectrum of complications emerging in successfully treated HIV-infected patients has dramatically changed since the advent of HAART. Typical AIDS-defining illnesses have been substituted by new comorbid conditions that threaten even those patients who maintain virologic suppression. Proper management of cardiovascular risk, and early diagnosis of AIDS-related and, particularly, non-AIDS-related malignancies (includi Read More

Objective: To characterize the functional properties of natural autoantibodies capable of preventing in vitro infection by HIV-1, present in normal human serum (NHS), and denoted as IgG-reactive antibodies. Methods: IgG-reactive antibodies were affinity purified both from normal human serum (NHS) and from a GammaBind G Sepharose Flowthrough (GBF) fraction of NHS by affinity chromatography on IgG coupled to CN Read More

Objective: To investigate the molecular phenotype of the AIDS-onset delaying polymorphism in CXCL12β 3'UTR (rs1801157). Methods: The 3'UTRs of the CXCL12β isoform containing the A or G polymorphic variants were cloned downstream of the Luciferase gene under the control of the CXCL12 promoter. The plasmids were transfected in U373 and LC5 cells and the polymorphism phenotype was evaluated in terms of Luciferase Read More

This study describes the current situation and projects dynamic trends for HIV prevalence in a highly endemic area of China, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Epidemiological, behavioral, and population census data from multiple sources were analyzed to extract input for an Asian Epidemic Model (AEM). Fitting curves to historical trends in HIV prevalence were used as a baseline, and future intervention scenarios w Read More

Antiretroviral therapy is standard treatment for HIV-infected patients. Such therapy has decreased mortality and morbidity, but treatment success is often jeopardized by the emergence of viral drug resistance. Moreover, in recent years there has been a reported rise in the incidence of transmitted drug resistance, highlighting the importance of pretreatment resistance screening. In this report, we describe the developm Read More

The prospects for expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-poor settings have greatly improved as a result of global and national efforts to reduce the cost of antiretroviral drugs (ARV), growing availability of cheaper generics, and increased financing available from the Global Funds like Medicines Sans Frontieres. Indian health set-up provides drugs free-of-cost to HIV infected patients through governmen Read More

Although very inefficient, sexual transmission of HIV-1 is responsible for more than 80% of infections worldwide. Yet, the presence of HIV in spermatozoa has been a matter of debate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of HIV nucleic acids and the distribution of mannose receptors in sperm cells, and to determine the semen parameters and cytokine levels in ejaculates from HIV-positive patients. The pres Read More

Tipranavir, a non-peptidic protease inhibitor which shows in vitro efficacy against some HIV-1-resistant strains, can be used in salvage therapies for multi-experienced HIV patients due to its peculiar resistance profile including 21 mutations at 16 protease positions according to International AIDS Society (IAS). Other genotypic scores, however, which attribute a different weight to single amino-acid substitutions, have been recently Read More

Successfully treated sudden cardiac death due to malignant arrhythmia related to HIV myocarditis in a young male with favorable clinical and virological profile is not described in current literature. HIV myocarditis as a possible cause of malignant ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death is discussed.

Most of the HIV-infected long term survivors show strong CD8+ cell noncytotoxic antiviral response (CNAR) that plays as an important factor for maintaining the relative healthy state of infected individuals. HIV infected former blood donors (FBDs) in Anhui, China are the unique population that considered infected by the same or a related HIV strain by the same exposure route, and is better to be studied for viral and host i Read More

Background: HIV treatment programs in Africa typically approach all enrolling patients uniformly. Growing numbers of patients are antiretroviral experienced. Defining patients on the basis of antiretroviral experience may inform enrollment practices, particularly if medical outcomes differ. Methods: Baseline and follow-up measures (CD4, weight change, and survival) were compared in a retrospective analysis between antir Read More

Chronic hepatitis C is frequent and aggressive in HIV-positive patients. Identification of early predictors of response to anti-HCV therapy is needed for a lower rate of response and higher discontinuations, compared to HCV mono-infected subjects. The aim of our study was to evaluate the predictive value of virological response (VR) at week 4-8-12 of Pegylated interferon alpha-2b (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) on sustained Read More

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV-infection is associated with lipodystrophy, insulin resistance, increased prevalence of disturbances in glucose tolerance and diabetes, hyperlipidemia and increased cardiovascular risk. Whether dietary intake influences total body fat, visceral fat, insulin resistance, glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism and circulating inflammatory markers in HIV-infected subjects with l Read More

Background: Smoking prevalence is very high among people living with HIV/AIDS, and smoking is riskier for them than for HIV-seronegative people. Promoting smoking cessation among HIV-infected people is therefore an emerging public health priority. Raising cigarette prices is usually considered as one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking, but its effectiveness has never been studied among HIV-infected smok Read More