News by Subject Medicine & Health

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is usually effective at suppressing HIV, allowing the immune system to recover by preventing the virus from destroying CD4+ T cells. Scientists have now identified a rare, paradoxical response to ART called extreme immune decline, or EXID. Five individuals evaluated at the NIAID experienced a significant decline in CD4+ T cell levels despite suppression of HIV below detectable levels for more than three years, according to a report published in JCI Insight.

Gene therapy developed at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has cured infants born with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1). The children are producing functional immune cells, including T cells, B cells and natural killer (NK) cells, for the first time. The gene therapy involved collecting patients' bone marrow, then using a virus as a vector to insert a correct copy of the IL2RG gene into the genome (DNA) of patients' blood stem cells.

A series of new studies by researchers at Brown University examines how teenagers in the United States and South Africa work through the challenges of exploring adult interactions, in the hope that the findings will inform new, targeted educational programs and interventions to prevent sexual violence among teenagers locally and globally.

A person's sexual behavior could affect their microbiome and immune system, potentially elevating their risk of HIV infection, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Imagine that HIV is a sealed tin can: if you opened it, what would you find inside? An international team led by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), Tufts University School of Medicine, and the University of Melbourne think they know. For the first time, they have visualized what the 'open can' of the human immunodeficiency virus looks like, revealing a previously unknown virus shape and a very detailed image of the vulnerabilities of the virus.

The increasing burden and risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) associated with HIV infection have today been highlighted in two studies presented at The International Liver Congress™ 2019 in Vienna, Austria.

For immigrants to the United States, the current political climate, and debates over issues such as a border wall, become part of the environment that influences their health, according to a new University of Washington study.

This study, which included nearly 3,000 mostly gay and bisexual men in Australia who received daily HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), reports on the association of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by describing diagnoses of chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis among the men and behavioral risk factors.