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Routine testing of inmates can reduce HIV incidence in the U.S.

Routine, jail-based HIV testing of inmates can successfully identify a substantial proportion of people unknowingly infected with HIV and could play a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease, according to a new report in this week's U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

29 Jun 2010

Mammalian embryo use different strategies to suppress retroviral infection: Study

Some viruses insert themselves into the host's DNA during infection in a process called retroviral integration, causing several diseases, including AIDS and cancer, notes a Texas A&M researcher who specializes in fetal diseases.

29 Jun 2010

Pluristem advances toward PLX-PAD Phase IIb clinical trials for CLI and Moderate-severe Claudication

Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. today announced that following its meeting with the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), the German regulatory authority for advanced therapy products (ATP), the company is advancing toward designing two Phase IIb clinical trials for its placenta-derived cell therapy product, PLX-PAD, for the treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) and Moderate-severe Claudication.

29 Jun 2010

LEAPS vaccine technology generates dendritic cells to stimulate immune system to fight viral illnesses

CEL-SCI Corporation and researchers at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) jointly announced today that a LEAPS-based vaccine (Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System) study has demonstrated the technology's potential using dendritic cells to stimulate the immune system to fight viral illnesses and other diseases.

29 Jun 2010

Rare human antibodies protect mice from lethal strains of influenza

Scientists have identified a new, highly conserved molecular target on the influenza A virus and demonstrated that human antibodies against this target are protective in animal models of seasonal and highly-pathogenic avian influenza. The work was conducted by researchers at Theraclone Sciences, with collaborators at University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Tokyo and Johns Hopkins University; and is reported this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

29 Jun 2010

Marine organisms may hold key to fight malaria

University of Central Florida scientist Debopam Chakrabarti is analyzing more than 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected off deep sea near Florida's coast. Some of them could hold the key to developing drugs to fight malaria, a mosquito-borne illness that kills more than 1 million people worldwide annually.

29 Jun 2010

Scientists discover new mechanism of H5N1 circulation and transmission in nature

A team of scientists, led by Mauro Delogu, virologist from the Veterinary Faculty of the Bologna University and researchers from the Istituto Superiore di Sanit-, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee) have discovered a new way of avian influenza transmission.

29 Jun 2010

Rubella epidemic played a major role in shifting public attitudes toward abortion laws

Ten years before the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion - which likely will be a focus of Senate confirmation questions for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan next week - German measles probably played the biggest part in starting to shift public attitudes about the criminal abortion laws, University of Illinois historian Leslie J. Reagan says in a new book.

29 Jun 2010

New diagnostic tool may help detect HPV and other viruses

A cluster of carbon nanotubes coated with a thin layer of protein-recognizing polymer form a biosensor capable of using electrochemical signals to detect minute amounts of proteins, which could provide a crucial new diagnostic tool for the detection of a range of illnesses, a team of Boston College researchers report in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

29 Jun 2010

Research could provide more effective treatment against West Nile virus

Protecting ourselves from backyard mosquito bites may come down to leaving the vacuuming for later, a study from York University shows.

29 Jun 2010

Foreign Policy examines GHI, PEPFAR

Foreign Policy examines reactions to the priorities set forth in President Barack Obama's Global Health Initiative (GHI) and what they might mean for PEPFAR.

29 Jun 2010

Efforts to contain drug-resistant malaria near Thai-Cambodian border appear to be working, officials say

A two-year effort aimed at preventing the emergence of drug-resistant malaria near the border between Cambodia and Thailand is showing signs of success, Duong Socheat, head of Cambodia's National Center for Malaria Control, said on Friday, DPA/Earth Times reports.

29 Jun 2010

Ahead of International AIDS Conference, health experts call for scientifically-based drug policies

Ahead of the International AIDS Conference, scheduled to kick off July 18, health experts on Monday called for a rethinking of international drug policies to incorporate greater scientific evidence and increase access to HIV prevention, treatment and care, the Associated Press reports (6/28).

29 Jun 2010

'Beeglue' may help deliver new treatments for fatal infections

Bees could have a key role to play in urgently-needed new treatments to fight the virulent MRSA bug, according to research led at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

29 Jun 2010

IAVI announces Japanese pledge of $10M for AIDS vaccine research and development

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) announced today that the Government of Japan pledged a US$10 million grant to support AIDS vaccine research and development over the next five years. The grant, which will be channeled through a newly established World Bank trust fund, is the first of its kind from the Japanese government to IAVI.

28 Jun 2010

FDA grants Abbott 510(k) clearance to market molecular diagnostic test for detection of chlamydia, gonorrhea

Abbott announced today that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a new, sensitive molecular diagnostic test and instrument to simultaneously detect two of the nation's most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), gonorrhea and chlamydia, including a new variant strain of chlamydia recently discovered in Sweden.

28 Jun 2010

Wake Forest Professor awarded $2.8M NHLBI grant to study ways to make transfusions using older blood safer

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, announced June 21st that it will fund nine research grants to improve the safety of red blood cell transfusions.

28 Jun 2010

CDC fails to implement official HIV testing guidelines, AHF criticizes

As health departments, community organizations and AIDS advocates around the country observe National HIV Testing Day today, AIDS Healthcare Foundation criticized the Centers for Disease Control's for its failure to implement its own landmark 2006 change it its official HIV testing guidelines that included the recommendation for routine testing of all individuals ages 13-64 for HIV as they visit or encounter routine healthcare settings.

28 Jun 2010

AHF rejects Obama trial balloon of $30M for nation's ADAP

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, is rejecting a trial balloon floated by Obama Administration officials that suggests $30 million in additional funding could adequately help close a gaping $126 million hole in funding for the nation's AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the federal and state funded, state run network of assistance programs that supply lifesaving AIDS drugs to low-income Americans in need.

28 Jun 2010

UNDP, UNAIDS launch Global Commission on HIV, Law

The U.N. Development Program together with UNAIDS on Thursday announced the formation of a commission to examine how legal environments affect HIV/AIDS efforts, VOA News reports (DeCapua, 6/24).

28 Jun 2010

Disease/Infection News

Routine testing of inmates can reduce HIV incidence in the U.S.

Mammalian embryo use different strategies to suppress retroviral infection: Study

Pluristem advances toward PLX-PAD Phase IIb clinical trials for CLI and Moderate-severe Claudication

LEAPS vaccine technology generates dendritic cells to stimulate immune system to fight viral illnesses

Rare human antibodies protect mice from lethal strains of influenza

Marine organisms may hold key to fight malaria

Scientists discover new mechanism of H5N1 circulation and transmission in nature

Rubella epidemic played a major role in shifting public attitudes toward abortion laws

New diagnostic tool may help detect HPV and other viruses

Research could provide more effective treatment against West Nile virus

Foreign Policy examines GHI, PEPFAR

Efforts to contain drug-resistant malaria near Thai-Cambodian border appear to be working, officials say

Ahead of International AIDS Conference, health experts call for scientifically-based drug policies

'Beeglue' may help deliver new treatments for fatal infections

IAVI announces Japanese pledge of $10M for AIDS vaccine research and development

FDA grants Abbott 510(k) clearance to market molecular diagnostic test for detection of chlamydia, gonorrhea

Wake Forest Professor awarded $2.8M NHLBI grant to study ways to make transfusions using older blood safer

CDC fails to implement official HIV testing guidelines, AHF criticizes

AHF rejects Obama trial balloon of $30M for nation's ADAP

UNDP, UNAIDS launch Global Commission on HIV, Law

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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