News by Subject Medicine & Health

Prompted by the need to improve conventional treatments for people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), a team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has identified a therapeutic approach to restore the effectiveness of immune cells. The study, led by doctoral student Hamza Loucif and Professor Julien van Grevenynghe, was published in the journal Autophagy.

A study published in The Lancet HIV marks one of the first scientifically robust assessments of a new model of treating HIV in lower or middle income countries where injection drug use is a major cause of HIV infection. It also suggests the importance of building support for peer and community connections to tackle the opioid epidemic that continues to ravage the United States in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The researchers found that over a ten-year period (2010-19), sex between female sex workers and their paying clients contributed 6.9 per cent of new HIV infections, while sex between clients with their non-paying partners contributed 41.9 per cent

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Mapp Biopharmaceutical have now found that MB66, a vaginal film product containing monoclonal antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) and herpes simplex viruses types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and 2), is safe and effective.

COVID-19 outcomes including hospitalization and in-hospital death were compared between people living with or without diagnosed HIV in New York State.

Researchers seeking to develop on-demand and behaviorally congruent HIV prevention options for anal sex are reporting the results of three early phase clinical trials of rectal microbicides at the HIV Research for Prevention Virtual Conference. The Phase I studies, led by the National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network, found both of two gel-based products well-tolerated, with higher doses of the active drugs likely required to provide protection from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.