How are scientists working to slow the spread of HIV and end the AIDS epidemic?

How are scientists working to slow the spread of HIV and end the AIDS epidemic?

Researchers from the University of Granada and Hospital Carlos III in Madrid, verified that maslinic acid 鈥?found in wax from olive skin 鈥?inhibits serin-protease, the enzyme used by HIV to release itself from the infected cell into the extracellular environment.
Olive oil has become part of the fight against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) 鈥?the cause of AIDS 鈥?thanks to the research carried out by the Bionat team, from the University of Granada, headed by Prof. Andr茅s Garc铆a-Granados, senior lecturer in Organic Chemistry. Their work shows that maslinic acid 鈥?a natural product extracted from dry olive-pomace oil in oil mills 鈥?inhibits serin-protease, an enzyme used by HIV to release itself from the infected cell into the extracellular environment and, consequently, to spread the infection into the whole body. These scientists from Granada determined that the use of olive-pomace oil can produce an 80% slowing down in AIDS spreading in the body.

Maslinic or crataegolic acid is a pentacyclic terpene with antioxidant and anticancer effects found in wax from olive skin, alongside oleanolic acid. The effects of this compound in the fight against AIDS are simultaneously being studied in the UGR and in Hospital Carlos III in Madrid by a team headed by Prof. Vallejo N谩jera.

in the new issue of Cell, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center announce that a technique called RNA interference can dramatically suppress HIV's spread not just in a petri dish but also in mice carrying human immune cells. The findings suggest a new mechanism for treating HIV with drugs鈥攁nd perhaps also preventing it with a vaccine.

Beneficial bacteria found in healthy women help to reduce the amount of vaginal HIV among HIV-infected women and make it more difficult for the virus to spread, boosting the possibility that "good bacteria" might someday be tapped in the fight against HIV.

The findings come from physicians and scientists at the University of Washington and the University of Rochester Medical Center, who worked together in an effort to learn more about how HIV survives and spreads from person to person. The study involving 57 women was done in Seattle and Rochester through the Women's HIV Interdisciplinary Network (WHIN), which is based at the University of Washington.

Every 10 seconds, someone dies of AIDS. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the worldwide toll of lives is approaching 30 million, and shows few signs of abating Nearly 5 million people are infected each year with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, and the WHO estimates that today 40 million people live with the virus -- a number equal to the entire population of Spain.

Microsoft Research is working with leading doctors and scientists to use advanced computer science techniques in the fight to slow or stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Microsoft researchers are applying software algorithms similar to those used on computing challenges such as managing computer databases, compressing digital files or blocking spam e-mail to overcome roadblocks in the hunt for an HIV vaccine.

Laboratory tests began this month on vaccine models developed using these Microsoft Research-aided approaches. The tests are the first step in what could be years of additional research and trials to determine the effectiveness of these models and determine if they could be used to develop vaccines for hepatitis C and other mutating viruses.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/featu...


The principal ways that people become infected with HIV are through:
Sharing needles and syringes with someone who has the virus, having sex -- vaginal, oral or anal -- with someone who has the virus amd a baby锟絪 exposure to his or her HIV-positive mother during pregnancy or birth or through breast feeding.

These ways of acquiring hiv/aids involve personal decisions on the part of an individual, and scientists can do nothing if people are going to continue to share needles, have intimate relations with others and no use protection.