A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University. The meta-analysis, which compared studies worldwide, showed that the saliva HIV test, OraQuick HIV1/2, had the same accuracy as the blood test for high-risk populations. The test sensitivity was slightly reduced for low risk populations. The study, published in this week's issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, has major implications for countries that wish to adopt self-testing strategies for HIV.

__IMAGE_2 Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen.

A cheaper laboratory test that helps guide anti-retroviral drug treatment for people with HIV/AIDS may be just as effective as a more sophisticated test, a group of international researchers has found – a discovery that could be particularly important in rural Africa.

WHAT: HIV is coated in sugars that usually hide the virus from the immune system. Newly published research reveals how one broadly neutralizing HIV antibody actually uses part of the sugary cloak to help bind to the virus. The antibody binding site, called the V1/V2 region, represents a suitable HIV vaccine target, according to the scientists who conducted the study. In addition, their research reveals the detailed structure of the V1/V2 region, the last part of the virus surface to be visualized at the atomic level.

The Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM) announced today that one of its researchers will receive funding of 100,000 US $ through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges. Dr. Andrés Finzi will pursue an innovative global health research project, titled "Reverse Fusion: a new approach to eradicate HIV/AIDS" to deliver toxic genes to HIV-infected cells and eliminate them.

Timing is everything when treating patients with both HIV and tuberculosis. Starting HIV therapy in such patients within two weeks of TB treatment, rather than two months as is the current practice, increases survival by 33 percent, according to a large-scale clinical trial in Cambodia led by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Immune Disease Institute (IDI).

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School have demonstrated an approach to HIV vaccine design that uses an altered form of HIV's outer coating or envelope protein.

Aeras and the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium (OETC) announce today the start of a Phase IIb proof-of-concept efficacy trial of a new investigational tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that involves people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The trial will be conducted at research sites in Senegal and South Africa with primary funding support from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

A new study shows for the first time that natural killer (NK) cells, which are part of the body's first-line defence against infection, can contribute to the immune response against HIV. In an article in the August 4 issue of Nature, a research team based at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard reports that the HIV strains infecting individuals with particular receptor molecules on their NK cells had variant forms of key viral proteins, implying that the virus had mutated to avoid NK cell activity.

HIV epidemics are emerging among men who have sex with men (a term that encompasses gay, non-gay identified homosexual men, transgendered, and bisexual men) in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Importantly, the high level of risky sexual behavior practiced by many men who have sex with men in these countries indicates that they could become the pivotal risk group for HIV sexual transmission in this region.

A landmark study by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) shows that patients in Africa receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for HIV can expect to live a near normal lifespan.

Astrocytes (pictured in green) help to support blood vessels (red) that act as the blood‑brain barrier ‑ a network that keeps potentially harmful chemicals and toxins out of the brain.... HIV weakens the blood-brain barrier — a network of blood vessels that keeps potentially harmful chemicals and toxins out of the brain — by overtaking a small group of supporting brain cells, according to a new study in the June 29 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings may help explain why some people living with HIV experience neurological complications, despite the benefits of modern drug regimens that keep them living longer.

Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have demonstrated why certain immune cells chronically exposed to HIV shut down, and how they can be reactivated.

A key step in the processing of HIV within cells appears to affect how effectively the immune system's killer T cells can recognize and destroy infected cells. Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have found that – as HIV proteins are broken down within cells, a process that should lead to labeling infected cell for destruction by CD8 T cells – there is a great variability in the stability of resulting protein segments, variations that could significantly change how well cells are recognized by the immune system. Their report appears in the June Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Thanks to a certain protein, rhesus monkeys are resistant to HIV. Known as TRIM5, the protein prevents the HI virus from multiplying once it has entered the cell. Researchers from the universities of Geneva and Zurich have now discovered the protein's mechanism, as they report in Nature. This also opens up new prospects for fighting HIV in humans.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS, makes use of the base excision repair pathway when inserting its DNA into the host-cell genome, according to a new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Crippling the repair pathway prevents the virus from completing this critical step in the retrovirus's life cycle.

Biochemist Leor Weinberger and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego and UCLA have proposed a fundamentally new intervention for the HIV/AIDS epidemic based on engineered, virus-like particles that could subdue HIV infection within individual patients and spread to high-risk populations that are difficult for public health workers to reach.

In the years since the AIDS epidemic began, it has become clear that there is substantial variation in the way that individuals respond to HIV infection. Although most progress quickly from initial infection to immunodeficiency, a small subset survive for long periods without developing symptoms. These patients, dubbed elite controllers, display undetectable levels of viral replication, but the mechanism that explains how their immune systems effectively control the virus is not understood.

A major new clinical trial seeks to determine whether HIV-infected asymptomatic individuals have less risk of developing AIDS or other serious illness if they begin taking antiretrovirals sooner rather than later, based on their level of CD4+ T-cells. An HIV-infected individual's level of CD4+ T-cells—commonly referred to as their CD4 count—is a key measure of immune system health. The study is co-funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

An AIDS vaccine tested in people, but found to be ineffective, influenced the genetic makeup of the virus that slipped past. The findings suggest new ideas for developing HIV vaccines.

A change in the formulation of tenofovir gel, an anti-HIV gel developed for vaginal use, may make it safer to use in the rectum, suggests research presented today at the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). In laboratory tests of rectal tissue, researchers from the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) found the reformulated gel was less harmful to the lining of the rectum than the original vaginal formulation, and just as effective in protecting cells against HIV.

A new finding from scientists at the National Institutes of Health could help efforts to design vaccines and other prevention tools to block HIV in the early stages of sexual transmission, before infection takes hold. Researchers at the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have helped explain genetic differences that can distinguish some early-transmitting HIVs—viruses found in an infected individual within the first month after infection—from forms of HIV isolated later in infection. These genetic features help HIV bind tightly to a molecule called integrin α4β7. According to the scientists, the capacity to bind tightly to α4β7 likely enhances the ability of certain HIV viruses to complete the many steps of sexual transmission and become the "founder" virus that establishes infection in an individual.

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, being infected with the virus that causes the disease was considered a virtual death sentence. But with the development of antiretroviral therapy, many with HIV are now living much longer. In fact, it is estimated that by 2015, about half of all HIV-positive individuals will be older than 50.

An innovative genetic strategy for rendering T-cells resistant to HIV infection without affecting their normal growth and activity is described in a paper published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/hum

A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Virginia has determined the structure of the protein package that delivers the genetic material of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to human cells.

Using chemical compounds found in a Japanese plant as a lead and the clever application of ultraviolet light, a Scripps Research Institute team has created a unique library of dozens of synthetic compounds to test for biomedical potential. Already, one of the compounds has shown great promise in inhibiting replication of HIV particles and fighting inflammation.

EASY-HIT** is a new cell-based assay system for simple and reliable testing of HIV inhibitors. This system was developed under the leadership of Professor Ruth Brack-Werner at the Institute of Virology. At the heart of the system are cultured human cells that allow HIV to enter and replicate efficiently and that signal HIV infection by producing a red fluorescent protein. The EASY-HIT technology can be used to identify HIV-inhibitors, measure the potency of their inhibitory activity and to detect the stage of replication targeted by the inhibitor.

The number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to far outstrip available resources for treatment by the end of the decade, forcing African nations to make difficult choices about how to allocate inadequate supplies of lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART), says a new report by the Institute of Medicine. It calls for a renewed emphasis on reducing the rate of new infections, promoting more efficient models of care, and encouraging shared responsibility between African nations and the U.S. for treatment and prevention efforts, which could greatly improve prospects for 2020 and beyond.

Scientists at Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have solved a long-standing mystery about HIV infection–namely how HIV promotes the death of CD4 T cells. It is the loss of this critical subset of immune cells that leads to the development of AIDS. Most immune cells that die during HIV infection are seemingly not infected, a phenomenon formerly described as "bystander cell killing." Now the Gladstone scientists report that these "bystander" cells are actually the victims of a failed or abortive form of viral infection. Their findings are published in today's issue of the journal Cell.

In a finding with the potential to fundamentally change strategies to slow the global HIV epidemic, a new study called iPrEx shows that individuals at high risk for HIV infection who took a single daily tablet containing two widely used HIV medications, emtricitabine and tenofovir (FTC/TDF), experienced an average of 43.8% fewer HIV infections than those who received a placebo pill (95% CI 15.4 to 62.6%; P=0.005). The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first evidence that this new HIV prevention method, called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, reduces HIV infection risk in people.