Rx+Research

Patients who received Viread for up to 144 weeks experienced sustained suppression of hepatitis B DNA levels to below 400, according to data from two Phase III clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of once-daily Viread among adult patients with chronic infection. ---------- A majority of patients taking boosted Reyataz once daily, instead of a twice-daily boosted regimen, achieved an undetectable viral load, confirming success through 96 weeks in the Castle Study. In addition, subjects had lower increases in total and LDL cholesterol as well as triglyceride levels. ---------- While studying an HIV protein that plays an essential role in AIDS progression, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh school of medicine have discovered compounds that show promise as novel treatments for the disease. Anti-HIV drug discovery efforts have met with little success in finding compounds that interact with an important HIV virulence factor called Nef because it lacks biochemical activity that can be directly measured. But the scientists bound Nef to the Hck gene and confirm that three compounds inhibited the activity of the Nef-Hck complex and, more important, all of them also interfered with HIV replication. One compound was so effective that it suppressed HIV replication to undetectable levels in cell culture experiments. ---------- A $6 million, five-year federal grant to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute will enable researchers to investigate a novel approach in treating HIV infection with a unique class of drugs focused on developing therapies for psychological and neurological effects in AIDS. ---------- Mothers receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV-1 infection are less likely than untreated mothers to transmit the virus to their newborns through breastfeeding, according to a new study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. ---------- The FDA has approved use of the vaccine Gardasil in boys and men ages 9 through 26 for the prevention of genital warts due to human papillomavirus types 6 and 11. Previously, Gardasil had only been approved for use in females of the same age group.