The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Rapid HIV treatment points to ‘functional cure’ for AIDS Posted: 15 Mar 2013 08:58 AM PDT LONDON, March 15 — Treating people with HIV rapidly after they have become infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be enough to achieve a "functional cure" in a small proportion of patients diagnosed early, according to new research.
The research, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, follows news earlier this month about a baby girl in Mississippi in the United States being effectively cured of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after receiving very early treatment. Christine Rouzioux, a professor at Necker Hospital and University Paris Descartes and a member of the initial team who identified HIV 30 years ago, said the new results showed the number of infected cells circulating in the blood of these patients, known as "post-treatment controllers", kept falling even without treatment for many years. "Early treatment in these patients may have limited the establishment of viral reservoirs, the extent of viral mutations, and preserved immune responses. A combination of those may contribute to control infection in post-treatment controllers," she said. "The shrinking of viral reservoirs ... closely matches the definition of 'functional' cure," she said. A functional cure describes when the virus is reduced to such low levels that it is kept at bay even without continuing treatment. The virus, however, is still detectable in the body. Most of the some 34 million people with HIV across the world will have to take anti-AIDS drugs known as antiretroviral therapy for the whole of their lives. These drugs generally keep the disease in check but also have side effects and a high cost impact on health systems. Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with HIV, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is falling. At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 per cent lower than in 2001, according to the United National AIDS programme (UNAIDS). And deaths from AIDS fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005. Asier Saez-Cirion, a senior HIV researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, said that although most patients will not be able to control HIV, these results suggest that at least some may be able to if they get treatment early enough. "(This data) and the Mississippi study strongly support early treatment initiation and may hold important clues for the development of a strategy to cure HIV or at least induce a long-term control without the need of antiretroviral treatment," he said. — Reuters |
| Aspirin tied to lower risk of most dangerous skin cancer Posted: 14 Mar 2013 07:47 PM PDT
Melanoma cases have been on the rise in recent decades. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 77,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed in 2013 and just over 9,000 people will die of the disease. The findings, published in the journal Cancer, are based on 12 years of data from the large, long-term Women's Health Initiative study and account for how much time study participants spent in the sun and whether they typically used sunscreen. But lead author Jean Tang, from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, said that this does not mean all women should start taking aspirin to ward off skin cancer. "This study ... correlates use of aspirin with lower melanoma risk but doesn't prove it," Tang told Reuters Health. For their study, Tang and her colleagues tracked almost 60,000 white women, ages 50 to 79, who reported their medication use and any new diagnoses on annual questionnaires. During the research period, 548 women — less than 1 per cent — were diagnosed with melanoma. Women who said they were regularly taking aspirin, meaning at least twice a week, at the start of the study were 21 per cent less likely to develop melanoma than those not on anti-inflammatory medicines. Use of aspirin for five years or longer was tied to a 30 per cent reduction in skin cancer risk. However, women who took other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) — such as ibuprofen and naproxen — weren't any less likely to develop melanoma. Neither were users of acetaminophen. Aspirin and other NSAIDS inhibit certain proteins that are known to play a role in tumour growth, so it's not clear why aspirin alone might lower the risk of melanoma. According to Tang, it is possible there just were not enough women taking non-aspirin NSAIDS in the study to see a clear effect. But Randall Harris, a cancer researcher from The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, said the evidence has been piling up that aspirin and other NSAIDS are tied to a lower risk of a range of cancers, including breast, colon and lung cancer. "In my opinion, it's certainly worth considering taking one of these compounds on a regular basis at a relatively low dose ... two or three times per week, especially if you are at risk for developing any one of these malignancies," he said. But Tang does not think the evidence currently supports most people using these drugs to ward off cancer, including melanoma. "For women who are at high risk (such as) somebody who's already had skin cancer, talk to your doctor about taking aspirin, because aspirin is still a drug," she said. "The benefit needs to be weighed against some of the possible side effects." — Reuters |
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