TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
sudeep khanal - My Blog
sudeep khanal - My Blog


Scientists now trying to outflank HIV/AIDS virus
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Scientists now trying to outflank HIV/AIDS virus

May 18, 2009 | 12:57 AM Comments  3 comments

Tags:


Scientists now trying to outflank HIV/AIDS virus
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Like a general whose direct attacks aren't working, scientists are now trying to outflank the HIV/AIDS virus.
Unsuccessful at developing vaccines that the cause the body's natural immune system to battle the virus, researchers are testing inserting a gene into the muscle that can cause it to produce protective antibodies against HIV.
The new method worked in mice and now has proved successful in monkeys, too, they reported Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine. The team is led by Dr. Philip R. Johnson of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
That doesn't mean an AIDS vaccine for people is in the wings, Johnson said. Years of work may lie ahead before a product is ready for human use.
Nevertheless, the report was welcomed by Dr. Beatrice Hahn, an AIDS researcher the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not part of Johnson's team. "It basically shows there is light at the end of the tunnel," she said in a telephone interview.
"It shows thinking outside the box is a good idea and can yield results, and we need perhaps more of these nonconventional approaches," she added.
According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, AIDS is one of the most devastating pandemics. More than 20 million people have died so far and about 33 million are living with HIV. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention last year estimated there are about 56,000 new HIV infections annually in the United States.
Most efforts at blocking AIDS have sought to stimulate the body's immune system to produce antibodies that fight the disease. This model has worked for diseases such as measles and smallpox. It hasn't done as well with HIV/AIDS; test vaccines have failed to produce a protective reaction.
So Johnson decided to try something different.
"We used a leapfrog strategy, bypassing the natural immune system response that was the target of all previous HIV and SIV vaccine candidates," Johnson said. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, causes AIDS in people. The closely related simian virus, or SIV, affects monkeys.
"Some years ago I came to the conclusion that HIV was different from other viruses for which we were trying to develop vaccines and we and might not ever be able to use traditional approaches," Johnson said in a telephone interview.
He said the researchers knew there were proteins that could neutralize the HIV virus, so they began thinking about whether they could use them to fight the disease.
In a decade-long effort, Johnson, K. Reed Clark of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and their team developed immunoadhesins, antibody-like proteins designed to attach to SIV and block it from infecting cells.
Then they needed a way to get the immunoadhesins into the cells.
The researchers selected the widely used adeno-associated virus as the carrier because it is an effective way to insert DNA into the cells of monkeys or humans. That virus was injected into muscles, where it carried the DNA of the immunoadhesins. The muscles then began producing the protective proteins.
Scientists first tested the idea in mice and then turned to monkeys because SIV is closely related to HIV and would be a good test model.
A month after administering the AAV, the nine treated monkeys were injected with SIV, as were six not treated in advance.
None of the immunized monkeys developed AIDS and only three showed any indication of SIV infection. Even a year later they had high concentrations of the protective antibodies in the blood.
All six unimmunized monkeys became infected; four died during the experiment.
The next step is moving toward human trials, Johnson said. He said he is working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in hopes of getting tests in humans under way in the next few years.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.







May 18, 2009 | 12:53 AM Comments  1 comments

Tags:


Scientists now trying to outflank HIV/AIDS virus
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Like a general whose direct attacks aren't working, scientists are now trying to outflank the HIV/AIDS virus.
Unsuccessful at developing vaccines that the cause the body's natural immune system to battle the virus, researchers are testing inserting a gene into the muscle that can cause it to produce protective antibodies against HIV.
The new method worked in mice and now has proved successful in monkeys, too, they reported Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine. The team is led by Dr. Philip R. Johnson of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
That doesn't mean an AIDS vaccine for people is in the wings, Johnson said. Years of work may lie ahead before a product is ready for human use.
Nevertheless, the report was welcomed by Dr. Beatrice Hahn, an AIDS researcher the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not part of Johnson's team. "It basically shows there is light at the end of the tunnel," she said in a telephone interview.
"It shows thinking outside the box is a good idea and can yield results, and we need perhaps more of these nonconventional approaches," she added.
According to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, AIDS is one of the most devastating pandemics. More than 20 million people have died so far and about 33 million are living with HIV. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention last year estimated there are about 56,000 new HIV infections annually in the United States.
Most efforts at blocking AIDS have sought to stimulate the body's immune system to produce antibodies that fight the disease. This model has worked for diseases such as measles and smallpox. It hasn't done as well with HIV/AIDS; test vaccines have failed to produce a protective reaction.
So Johnson decided to try something different.
"We used a leapfrog strategy, bypassing the natural immune system response that was the target of all previous HIV and SIV vaccine candidates," Johnson said. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, causes AIDS in people. The closely related simian virus, or SIV, affects monkeys.
"Some years ago I came to the conclusion that HIV was different from other viruses for which we were trying to develop vaccines and we and might not ever be able to use traditional approaches," Johnson said in a telephone interview.
He said the researchers knew there were proteins that could neutralize the HIV virus, so they began thinking about whether they could use them to fight the disease.
In a decade-long effort, Johnson, K. Reed Clark of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and their team developed immunoadhesins, antibody-like proteins designed to attach to SIV and block it from infecting cells.
Then they needed a way to get the immunoadhesins into the cells.
The researchers selected the widely used adeno-associated virus as the carrier because it is an effective way to insert DNA into the cells of monkeys or humans. That virus was injected into muscles, where it carried the DNA of the immunoadhesins. The muscles then began producing the protective proteins.
Scientists first tested the idea in mice and then turned to monkeys because SIV is closely related to HIV and would be a good test model.
A month after administering the AAV, the nine treated monkeys were injected with SIV, as were six not treated in advance.
None of the immunized monkeys developed AIDS and only three showed any indication of SIV infection. Even a year later they had high concentrations of the protective antibodies in the blood.
All six unimmunized monkeys became infected; four died during the experiment.
The next step is moving toward human trials, Johnson said. He said he is working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in hopes of getting tests in humans under way in the next few years.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.


May 18, 2009 | 12:49 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


water level in kathmandu valley
Related to country: Nepal

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

with poor supply of water from the taps, kathmandu valley residents have had no choice but to drill deeper and deeper for the limited amount of underground water. the current drinking water supply including from natural sources and groundwater inside valley is about 90 milllion liters per day while the demand is three times more i.e. 280liters per day due to increasing population.
according to estimates, between 300million and 350 million liters of water is pumped out in kathmandu per day. at the rate the water level is decling, may be two decades from now, the valley residents would not get water even after digging 400 metre deep, warn environmental experts. ideally, water extraction in kathmandhu should be limited to 15million liters per day.

April 23, 2009 | 12:07 AM Comments  4 comments

Tags:




sudeep khanal's Profile

sudeep khanal's Friends


Latest Posts
Scientists now trying...
Scientists now trying...
Scientists now trying...
water level in...

Monthly Archive
April 2009
May 2009

Change Language


Filter By Type
Travel
Topics

Friends
aasha
Aasha Subedi
Alina
Alison Lazaro
Amalu
Anita
Anjana
Ayisha-Renee Bowen
Bernise Ang
bindu
Cami
caringdevice
Charity Posadas
cheteze tamang
ckshya
Diviya Shankar
Footprints
HELP/Nepal
jacqueline stein
Jennifer Corriero
Jyoti Poudel
kabita rai
Kimia
Kishor
Leny Lee
Margie Brand
Medha Sharma
melachavalita
Michael Furdyk
missrumba
Mona Aditya
nabina
Ooma
Pabitra Shah
Pratima Ghimire
Preeti
Pushpanjali Malla
Rina
Roshni Rai
Shreejana K.C
SMJN
Soufiane Kennous
srijana upreti
Suneboy
tara
Vinita
Yashoda
Yinmin Chung
ओमकला (OMKALA)


7068 views
Important Disclaimer