News by Subject Medicine & Health

Contrary to the long-held view that semen can only act as a way to transmit HIV-1 from men to women, scientists at The Wistar Institute and the University of Puerto Rico found that frequent and sustained semen exposure can change the characteristics of the circulating and vaginal tissue immune cells that are targets for infection, reducing the susceptibility to a future infection.

The first large-scale review into the health outcomes of people living with HIV has found that this group has an increased risk of contracting specific diseases and illnesses, some of which are more commonly associated with ageing.

BioIVT announced that researchers in its Transporter Sciences Group have co-authored a peer-reviewed paper, which investigates the inhibitory effects of a class of HIV drugs known as integrase inhibitors on folate transporter pathways. Previously published studies had appeared to show a correlation between exposure to dolutegravir, and other HIV integrase inhibitor drugs, at conception and an increased risk of neural-tube defects, which can cause conditions such as spina bifida in infants.

Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered a new potential medication that works with an HIV-infected person's own body to further suppress the ever present but silent virus that available HIV treatments are unable to combat.

Elderly cancer patients who are HIV-positive have worse outcomes compared to cancer patients in the same age range who do not have HIV. A new study in JAMA Oncology takes a closer look at the disparity, factoring in whether or not cancer treatment had an impact on outcomes among this patient population.

This study compared outcomes after a cancer diagnosis in patients with and without HIV who were 65 or older, had similar stages of cancer, and had received stage-appropriate cancer treatment in the year following diagnosis.

Children born with HIV in the U.S. were less likely to adhere to their medications as they aged from preadolescence to adolescence and into young adulthood. The study is one of the first to examine why different age groups stop adhering to treatment.

A long-acting antiretroviral agent such as rilpivirine could further improve pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), already shown to be safe and effective at preventing AIDS in high risk populations, as it could overcome problems with poor medication adherence.

A single viral factor released from HIV-infected cells may wreak havoc on the body and lead to the development of metabolic diseases. By explaining the mechanisms, it could pave the way for targeted treatment to help provide a longer and healthier life for the 36 million people globally living with HIV/AIDS.