http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242187.php

"Article Date: 27 Feb 2012

Study Could Lead To Novel Therapy For Cancer

In a study published in Nature Medicine, Loyola researchers report on a promising new technique that potentially could turn immune system killer T cells into more effective weapons against infections and possibly cancer.

The technique involves delivering DNA into the immune system's instructor cells. The DNA directs these cells to overproduce a specific protein that jumpstarts important killer T cells. These killer cells are typically repressed in patients who have HIV or cancer, said José A. Guevara-Patino, MD, PhD, senior author of the study. Guevara is an Associate Professor in the Oncology Institute of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Guevara and colleagues reported their technique proved effective in jumpstarting defective immune systems in immuno-compromised mice and in human killer T cells taken from people with HIV.

Guevara said a clinical trial in cancer patients could begin in about three years..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health.../10/gIQA5YzdGU_story.html

FDA panel recommends approval of drug to prevent HIV infection
By Brian Vastag, May 10 2012

For the first time in the 30-year battle against the HIV epidemic, a panel of experts has recommended that the Food and Drug Administration approve a drug to give to healthy people to protect against the infection.

[...] Truvada is already FDA-approved for the treatment of HIV. That means physicians are free to prescribe it “off label” for prevention; reports indicate that some already do. But a new FDA approval will free the company that makes the drug, Gilead Sciences, to market Truvada for prevention, too.

[...] Studies presented to the FDA’s Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee show that Truvada reduced the risk of acquiring HIV by 42 to 73 percent among men who have sex with men and among HIV-negative partners of people carrying the virus. Those prevention rates would have been higher if all of the study participants had taken the pills daily as directed, Gilead representatives told the committee. Blood tests found that a large proportion of participants did not take the pills daily despite frequent visits with health-care providers. Among participants who did take the pills daily, prevention rates were above 90 percent in three large international studies.

[...] If the FDA approves Truvada for HIV prevention, Gilead would roll out education campaigns for patients and physicians and continue studies that monitor for serious adverse events, especially kidney damage and decreases in bone density, company officials told the committee. Gilead would also recommend that patients are confirmed as HIV-negative before being given the drug; if they are HIV-positive, taking Truvada could lead to drug-resistant strains of the virus.

[...] Truvada has been a blockbuster for Gilead, with sales of $758 million in the first quarter of 2012. Truvada was approved by the FDA in 2004 to treat HIV in combination with other drugs. Truvada is a combination of two drugs, Viread and Emtriva, that interfere with HIV’s ability to reproduce.

[...] Gaining widespread insurance coverage of Truvada for HIV prevention could be a hurdle for Gilead: There is no diagnostic code — typically needed for reimbursement — for simply being at risk for HIV. The drug costs about $11,000 a year.

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20120515_..._rapid_home_HIV_test.html

FDA panel recommends rapid home HIV test
By Don Sapatkin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A federal advisory committee on Tuesday unanimously approved over-the-counter sale of a rapid HIV test, acknowledging the need for new tools against an epidemic that is driven largely by people who don't know their status and infect others. If the Food and Drug Administation agrees with its advisers, the oral swab screening device made by OraSure Technologies Inc. of Bethlehem, Pa., would become the first infectious disease test approved for home use. [...] An estimated 240,000 Americans are unaware that they are HIV positive, and are responsible for between 50 and 70 percent of the 50,000 new infections each year.

The test uses oral fluid from a swab of the gums. If a single horizontal line appears after 20 minutes, it has not detected antibodies to HIV. Two lines mean it is HIV positive, a preliminary finding that must be confirmed by a laboratory blood test. [...]
The company has not disclosed a retail price or projected sales, although it estimated that the entire market for rapid home HIV tests at $500 million retail. FDA staff projected that the test would be used by 2.8 million people in the first year. It would discover about 45,000 infections that otherwise would have remained unknown, and in turn, prevent HIV from spreading to another 4,000 people [...]

The product that was recommended for home use on Tuesday is identical to the oral version of that test, which was approved in 2004, except for the packaging, labeling, and support services. As a result, the company has said it could begin selling the test at pharmacies and online within 60 days of approval by the FDA. The agency typically follows its advisers' recommendations [...]

http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/antib...reast-milk-may-fight-hiv/

Antibodies in breast milk may fight HIV

DUKE (US) — [Two] Newly discovered antibodies in breast milk help to stop the HIV virus, according to a study of mothers in Malawi. [...] Researchers at Duke University isolated the antibodies from immune cells called B cells in the breast milk of HIV-infected mothers, and showed that the B cells in breast milk can generate neutralizing antibodies that may inhibit the virus that causes AIDS. [...] The study was published on May 18 in PLoS One, an open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science. “This is important work that seeks to understand what a vaccine must do to protect babies from mucosal transmission during breastfeeding,” says Barton Haynes, co-author and director of both the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) and the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). “The antibodies isolated are the first HIV antibodies isolated from breast milk that react with the HIV-1 envelope, and it important to understand how they work to attack HIV-1.” The findings of two different antibodies with HIV-neutralizing properties isolated from breast milk also may help researchers with new investigations into adult-to-adult transmission, in addition to mother-to-child transmission. [Senior Author Sallie] Permar says that most HIV-1 transmission occurs at a mucosal site in the body – surfaces lined with epithelial cells, such as the gastrointestinal tract or vaginal tissue. The mucosal compartments all have their own immune system cells. “We’re excited about this finding because the immune cells in mucosal compartments can cross-talk and traffic between compartments,” Permar says. “So the antibodies we found in breast milk indicate that these same antibodies are able to be elicited in other tissues.” [...]

http://www.sciencecodex.com/nih_scientists_id...vinhibiting_protein-92283

NIH scientists identify new HIV-inhibiting protein
posted on: may 29, 2012 - 2:00pm

Scientists have identified a new HIV-suppressing protein in the blood of people infected with the virus. In laboratory studies, the protein, called CXCL4 or PF-4, binds to HIV such that it cannot attach to or enter a human cell. [...] CXCL4 belongs to a family of molecules called chemokines that help regulate the movement of immune cells around the body. In the mid-1990s, four chemokines [...] were found in laboratory experiments to function as HIV inhibitors. These chemokines as well as CXCL4 may regulate the level of virus replication in infected individuals and thus the pace at which HIV disease progresses. [...] CXCL4 differs from the other four major HIV-suppressive chemokines in several respects. The other four chemokines inhibit HIV infection by binding to either one of two cell receptors—called CCR5 and CXCR4—used by the virus to attach to and enter immune cells, whereas CXCL4 binds directly to the outer surface of the virus. While the other chemokines bind to forms of HIV that use either the CCR5 or the CXCR4 receptor, CXCL4 can bind to and block infection by a wide variety of HIV strains, no matter what their receptor specificity. Finally, while the other chemokines are made primarily by immune cells, CXCL4 is made by platelets, the blood cells involved in clotting. [...]

Source: NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases