COLUMBUS, Ohio — Simply teaching people the facts about how to protect themselves from HIV may not be enough to prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that villagers in Ghana who had higher levels of cognit…
New research suggests that combining the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel with very low doses of the HIV-fighting drug AZT may shrink or even eradicate certain types of cancer tumors. Using both drugs in mice helped inhibit the enzyme telomerase, a component critical to the livelihood of some cancer cells. Telomerase helps to build and maintain telomeres ? protective strands of DNA at each end of a chromosome.
Researchers have developed a new gene therapy approach that prevents the AIDS virus from entering human cells. The technique offers a potential way to treat HIV patients and could apply to any disease caused by a gene malfunction, including cancer. The research team created a new application for a genetic technology called small interfering RNA (siRNA). The synthetically designed siRNAs act as a catalyst to reduce the expression of specific genes and slow the progression of disease.
No cases of HIV transmission through unprotected receptive oral sex were found by researchers at UCSF’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in a new study. The study looked at men who have sex with men and who exclusively practice oral sex as the receptive partner. “HIV infection through receptive oral sex is a very rare event?statistically our study showed a probability of zero?and is rarer than HIV infection through receptive anal intercourse using a condom,” said the study’s lead author Kimberly Page Shafer, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at UCSF’s CAPS. The findings are being published in the November 22, 2002 issue of AIDS.