31 Percent Respond to Hep C Retreatment After First Course Fails
Roughly 31 percent of people coinfected with both HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be successfully retreated for HCV after a first course of treatment has failed, according to a study published online January 23 in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
January 28, 2010
Long-Lasting HIV Nucleoside Analogue in Development A research team from the University of Missouri at Columbia is developing a novel nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that remains active against HIV for days after a single dose, according to a report published online by ScienceDaily.
January 27, 2010
Early Immune Disruption Might Predict Who Needs Early HIV Treatment Subtle changes in the level of certain immune cells soon after infection are highly predictive of more rapid disease progression, according to a study published online January 15 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and reported by aidsmap. The results might help providers predict who would benefit from earlier HIV treatment.
January 26, 2010
FDA Review of HIV Lipodystrophy Drug Is Delayed Montreal-based Theratechnologies announced yesterday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will reschedule its meeting with independent experts to help decide whether to approve Egrifta (tesamorelin) for the treatment of HIV-associated lipodystrophy.
January 25, 2010
PrEP Prevents Rectal and Intravenous Transmission in Mice Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prevents infection by both rectal and intravenous exposure to HIV in mice, according to a study published January 21 in the online journal PLoS ONE and reported by ScienceDaily. PrEP involves giving antiretroviral therapy to an uninfected individual daily to prevent HIV infection.
January 21, 2010
No Approval (Yet) for Merck’s HIV Drug Vicriviroc Merck will delay its request for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for vicriviroc, an experimental CCR5 antagonist, after it failed in two late-stage clinical trials involving treatment-experienced patients, The Wall Street Journal reports.
January 20, 2010
Providers Need Additional Training to Improve Patient HIV Treatment Adherence Providing clinicians with more data on their patients’ antiretroviral (ARV) adherence doesn’t ultimately translate to better adherence practices, according to a study published online ahead of print by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
January 19, 2010
Lower Bone Mass in HIV-Positive Postmenopausal Women Black and Hispanic HIV-positive women who’ve been through menopause might be at higher risk of bone fractures than similar HIV-negative women, according to a study published online December 4 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and reported by aidsmap.
January 15, 2010
New Wave of Transmitted Drug Resistance Predicted for San Francisco The number of new HIV infections with virus resistant to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) could rise significantly in San Francisco and become a self-sustaining epidemic, according to a study published online January 14 in the journal Science and reported by Bloomberg News. The authors also fear that an upswing in transmitted drug-resistant virus could imperil efforts to test and treat nearly everyone living with HIV in developing countries.
January 14, 2010
Proposed Medicare Coverage for Facial Wasting Treatment
Medicare administrators are offering a proposal to use approved injectable fillers to treat people with HIV who have facial wasting—but only if they provide proof that their facial wasting lead to depression. People may send public comments to Medicare officials on this proposal until January 22.
January 13, 2010
Switching From Kaletra to Isentress: Benefits and Hazards Switching from Kaletra (lopinavir plus ritonavir) to Isentress (raltegravir) when viral load is undetectable might help reduce elevated cholesterol and triglyceride (lipid) levels, but it might also raise the risk of losing control of the virus, according to two studies published online January 13 in The Lancet and reported by MedPage Today.
January 12, 2010
Anal Pap Smears About as Effective as Cervical Cancer Screening Anal Pap smears are similar to cervical Pap smears in their ability to detect precancerous cells, according to a study published online January 6 in AIDS, and they appear to work better in people with HIV whose CD4 counts are below 400. However, anal Paps are not as effective at finding precancerous cells as an expert visual examination of the anus and rectum through a scope.
January 11, 2010
Is Pegasys Superior to PEG-Intron for Hep C Treatment?
A hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment regimen including Genentech’s Pegasys (pegylated interferon-alpha-2a) is superior to a regimen including Schering-Plough’s PEG-Intron (pegylated interferon-alpha-2b), according to two studies published in the January issue of Gastroenterology. The studies did not include people living with HIV, however.
January 08, 2010
HIV-Positive Men More Likely to Have Coronary Artery Blockage HIV-positive men with no known cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors were significantly more likely to have serious accumulations of plaque in their coronary artery (atherosclerosis) than HIV-negative men of a similar age, according to a study published in the January 2010 issue of AIDS.
January 07, 2010
Aging and HIV Independently Affect Blood Flow to Brain
Both aging and HIV independently affect blood flow to the brain, but the two together don’t have an additive effect, according to a study published online January 4 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
January 06, 2010
Gilead Reports Success With Quad Pill and Boosting Drug Gilead Sciences is reporting early signs of success in two Phase II studies involving its experimental drug GS 9350, which boosts the blood levels of other drugs, according to a press release issued today by the company. The first study compared Atripla (Sustiva, tenofovir and emtricitabine) with Gilead’s “Quad” pill containing GS 9350 plus three other drugs. The second study compared GS 9350 with Norvir (ritonavir) as a booster for the protease inhibitor Reyataz (atazanavir).
January 05, 2010
ARV Treatment Cuts Mortality in Early and Late Treaters Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment cuts the death rate in people with HIV by up to 46 percent, according to a study published in the January 2 issue of AIDS and reported by aidsmap. Even those who didn’t initiate therapy until their CD4 cell counts were below 100 experienced a profound reduction in the risk of death from any cause.
January 04, 2010
Rilpivirine/Truvada Combo Pill Could Earn $2 Billion Yearly A fixed-dose all-in-one pill combining Tibotec’s experimental non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) rilpivirine (TMC278) with Gilead’s Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine) is expected to achieve “blockbuster sales” in the coming decade—earning up to $2 billion per year in the United States, Japan and five European countries—according to a news release by industry analyst Decision Resources.
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