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9 September 2016 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 36

Media Coverage

  • HIV and 'the shot': Could a leading contraceptive fuel HIV infection risk?

    New evidence has spurred a large, multi-country study and an international meeting on the matter but will answer come soon enough for women?

    September 9, 2016
    Hormonal Contraceptives and HIV
    Bhekisisa

  • Kymouse success in steps to developing HIV vaccine

    The results show that Kymouse, which is a mouse that has been modified to mimic human antibody responses, is an effective platform for discovering and testing possible vaccines and suggest ways in which testing of vaccine candidates can be improved.

    September 9, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Science Codex

  • New vaccination strategies coach immune system to make HIV-neutralizing antibodies

    New approaches that could spur the human body to produce HIV-blocking antibodies have been successful in mice mimicking the human immune system, according to five studies published today in the research journals Cell, Immunity and Science.

    September 9, 2016
    Antibody Related Research, HIV Vaccine
    Science Daily

  • A new HIV vaccine? Cambridge firm's leading role in research project

    Antibody firm Kymab has teamed up with the Scripps Research Institute of San Diego, California, and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative...to develop effective vaccines against the range of HIV variants....The results show that Kymab's Kymouse--a mouse modified to mimic human antibody responses--is an effective platform for discovering and testing possible vaccines.

    September 7, 2016
    HIV Vaccine
    Cambridge News

  • Do girls make up the majority of new HIV infections among African youth?

    International leaders continue to try and shine a light on the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. But do they get their facts right?....Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that young women "account for a shocking 74 percent of all new HIV infections among adolescents in Africa." The data from UNAIDS and UNICEF closely matches his numbers, though Trudeau would have been more precise if he said sub-Saharan Africa.

    September 7, 2016
    Politifact

  • Single HIV mutation induces distinct T cell immune responses

    In an effort to improve the development of T cell-mediated AIDS vaccines, a research collaboration has discovered that a single T cell-selected HIV mutation can produce different T cell adaptations. The finding demonstrates that the complexity of the HIV/T cell co-evolution is much higher than previously thought.

    September 6, 2016
    Science Daily

  • HIV infection worsens survival of patients with cervical cancer

    HIV infection is associated with reduced cancer-specific survival among women with invasive cervical cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Investigators enrolled 348 women living in Botswana with invasive cervical cancer, of whom 231 had HIV and 96 did not....After adjusting for multiple variables, researchers found that HIV infection was associated with a nearly 2-fold increased risk of death among all women.

    September 6, 2016
    Oncology Nurse Advisor

  • Researchers find other layers of immunity in TB/HIV co-infections

    Tulane University researchers found some monkeys whose immune systems are depleted by the simian strain of HIV have a second line of defense against tuberculosis. The discovery could have significant impacts on future vaccines for TB. The research, led by study author Deepak Kaushal, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    September 6, 2016
    Medical Xpress

  • This pill prevents HIV. Why don’t more people take it?

    PrEP has the potential to advance what activists call “getting to zero” — eliminating the transmission of HIV, said Carl Sciortino, executive director, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts....But even so, people need to be recruited and coaxed....A higher percentage of people take PrEP in Massachusetts than in any other state — but that percentage is minuscule. What’s the problem?

    September 6, 2016
    PrEP
    Boston Globe

  • Editorial: Replenish the Global Fund

    At a meeting in Montreal on Sept. 16, donor nations will renew their commitments to the Global Fund for another three years. The United States should be foremost among them....The United States deserves credit for what it has done so far. Now is not the time to turn away.

    September 6, 2016
    Register Guard

  • Is there anyone the drug industry hates more than this AIDS activist?

    There’s nobody the drug companies are spending more to fight than Michael Weinstein. And Weinstein takes pride in their hostility....A longtime HIV/AIDS activist, Weinstein is the driving force behind a drug price control initiative in California that could set a national precedent. It’s just the latest in a long string of legal and political fights he’s picked.

    September 6, 2016
    PrEP
    STAT News

  • Vaginal rings help prevent HIV in older women, but not those who need it the most

    Researchers concluded that while the vaginal ring reduced HIV transmission by 56% in women between the ages of 22 and 26, and 51% for women over the age of 27, it had zero effectiveness for women between 18 and 21 — who also have the highest rates of HIV infection.

    September 6, 2016
    Microbicides
    HIV Plus Mag

  • Gut bacteria affect immune recovery in HIV patients, study finds

    Gut bacteria also play their role in the immune recovery of HIV patients undergoing ART, an international study has found. The implications are that new complementary therapies could be developed that target these bacteria to boost the efficiency of ART and prevent the complications associated with immune deficiency and chronic inflammation.

    September 5, 2016
    Science Daily

  • HPV infection rates plummet after vaccine with China the next frontier

    Monday marks the 10-year anniversary of the HPV vaccine release in Australia, and research led by the Royal Woman's hospital in Victoria, published to coincide with the anniversary, has found that HPV infection rates [in Australia] have fallen by up to 90%,...[with] similarly significant decreases in genital warts and cervical abnormalities in many of the 129 countries they examined. In China, however, ... the number of HPV-related cancers remains high.

    September 4, 2016
    Guardian

  • HIV-positive Ugandan women complain of forced sterilization in government hospitals

    A 2015 study carried out in nine districts of Uganda by the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) found 72 out of 744 HIV-positive women surveyed had been sterilized. Twenty of them had been forced to undergo the procedure, or it had happened without their consent.

    September 4, 2016
    Reuters

  • Does PrEP use lead to higher STI rates among gay and bi men?

    Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 18 studies of MSM in which new STI diagnoses were reported....Rates of new STIs are much higher among MSM taking Truvada as PrEP than among other MSM,...but more research is needed to determine whether starting PrEP actually causes STI rates to rise. The researchers joined with others who have called upon the CDC to recommend that MSM using PrEP receive quarterly STI screenings, instead of the currently recommended semiannual screenings.

    September 2, 2016
    PrEP
    POZ

  • Vaginal ring for HIV prevention effective and acceptable

    An updated adherence analysis from the ASPIRE study indicates that consistent users of a vaginal ring containing dapivirine experienced 65% fewer infections, the AIDS 2016 Conference...heard in July [and] additional analyses suggested a higher level of effectiveness. Moreover, African women who took part in the study told researchers that they liked the product, found it easy to use and preferred it to possible alternatives such as tablets or vaginal gels.

    September 2, 2016
    Microbicides
    aidsmap

  • New vaccine coalition aims to ward off epidemics

    A new public-private coalition that aims to derail epidemics by speeding development of vaccines has now hung its shingle with the backing of the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    September 2, 2016
    Science

  • Gonorrhoea: Encouraging decrease in certain antibiotic resistance levels of gonococci across Europe

    In 2014, the susceptibility of gonococci to two of the recommended antibiotics for gonorrhoea treatment has shown signs of improvement, according to recent results. At the same time, a significant increase in resistance to another antibiotic agent [azithromycin] that is part of the suggested dual therapy of gonorrhea was observed.

    September 2, 2016
    Science Daily

  • HIV infections in SF hit low, but drive misses African Americans

    New HIV infections dropped to historic lows in San Francisco last year as the city amped up an aggressive campaign to essentially end the AIDS epidemic by 2020....However, infections increased among black men and women. And other indicators of progress toward ending the epidemic — such as getting people diagnosed early and into care quickly — also aren’t as robust among minority men and women as white men.

    September 1, 2016
    SF Gate

  • South Africa to give free HIV treatment to all infected

    South Africa says it will now provide free treatment to all people infected with HIV, regardless of the condition of their immune system. Before Thursday's announcement by the country's health department, people were eligible for free treatment based on a certain measure of their white blood cells, which fight infection.

    September 1, 2016
    AP

  • Portland biotech receives NIH grant to develop rapid HIV test

    Portland-based Sedia Biosciences was awarded an additional $1.8 million grant from the NIH to continue to develop its novel rapid HIV test for recent infections, which can estimate how recently an HIV infection occurred, with results obtained in 20 minutes from a finger stick drop of blood....The Asante HIV-1 Rapid Recency Assay could be especially useful in countries that don’t have access to labs.

    August 30, 2016
    Portland Business Journal

  • Glaxo bets it can shake up HIV treatment

    The treatment of HIV has changed little since the mid-1990s....A three-drug regimen has remained the standard approach, with drug development efforts focused on ever more powerful triple combinations. Glaxo executives ...hope the U.K.-based drug company’s latest HIV pill is powerful enough to suppress the virus with just one other drug....[and] Glaxo’s majority-owned HIV business ViiV Healthcare...is getting down to the long process of proving it.

    August 28, 2016
    Wall Street Journal

  • University of Kansas, Peace Corps partner to combat HIV in Africa

    The University of Kansas announced it is partnering with the Peace Corps to provide a custom, web-based resource known as The Community Tool Box to staff and volunteers in Africa who are working to increase health and development and combat HIV/AIDS. The Community Tool Box first launched at the university in the 1990s as a free online resource delivering evidence-based guidance in best practices for community building.

    August 28, 2016
    Healio

  • The race for a Zika vaccine

    It’s hard to convey the magnitude of what [Dan] Barouch’s...and Nelson Michael’s teams had managed to do—take a little-known virus and develop an investigational vaccine in a hundred and eighty days....When Barouch and Michael talk about speed, they bring up their years of H.I.V. research....As Michael put it, “The playbook was there. The players were there. Teams were formed. We just turned to a new enemy.”

    August 22, 2016
    New Yorker

Published Research

  • Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV infection and new sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men

    We conducted a meta-analysis to summarize rates of sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV versus MSM not using PrEP. Incidence rate ratios showed that MSM using PrEP were 25.3 times more likely to acquire a Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection, 11.2 times more likely to acquire a Chlamydia trachomatis infection, and 44.6 times more likely to acquire a syphilis infection versus MSM not using PrEP.

    September 10, 2016
    AIDS

  • Race-specific trends in HPV vaccinations and provider recommendations: persistent disparities or social progress?

    Our results suggest that racial and ethnic disparities in provider recommendations and HPV vaccinations have waned over time among males and females. While these trends are welcomed, additional interventions are warranted to increase overall rates of vaccination across race, ethnicity, and gender.

    September 9, 2016
    Public Health

  • Priming HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in human Ig loci transgenic mice

    Despite an average frequency of at most ~1 VRC01-class precursor per mouse, we found that at least 29% of singly-immunized mice produced a VRC01-class memory response, suggesting that priming generally succeeded when at least one precursor was present. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using germline targeting to prime specific and exceedingly rare bnAb precursor B cells within a human-like repertoire.

    September 9, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Science

  • Induction of HIV neutralizing antibody lineages in mice with diverse precursor repertoires

    When subjected to a sequential immunization strategy, these VH1-2∗02-rearranging vaccination mouse models allow maturation of VRC01 precursor antibodies into HIV-1 neutralizing antibody lineages.

    September 9, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Cell

  • Tailored immunogens direct affinity maturation toward HIV neutralizing antibodies

    We report the development of boosting immunogens designed to guide the genetic and functional maturation of previously primed VRC01-class precursors. Boosting a transgenic mouse model expressing germline VRC01 heavy chains produced broad neutralization of near-native isolates (N276A) and weak neutralization of fully native HIV.

    September 8, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Cell

  • Sequential Immunization Elicits Broadly Neutralizing Anti-HIV-1 Antibodies in Ig Knockin Mice

    Our data establish that sequential immunization with specifically designed immunogens can induce high levels of somatic mutation and shepherd antibody maturation to produce bNAbs from their inferred germline precursors.

    September 8, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Cell

  • HIV vaccine design to target germline precursors of glycan-dependent broadly neutralizing antibodies

    We have developed stabilized native-like trimer immunogens for germline-targeting and boosting of glycan-dependent PGT121-class bnAb responses against HIV. The immunogens and boosting schemes we created are candidates for human vaccine testing and further optimization, and the methods developed here are applicable to immunogen design for other epitopes and pathogens and thus are of relevance for future vaccine design.

    September 8, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Cell

  • Prevalence of HIV, HBV and HCV among street and labour children in Tehran, Iran

    One thousand street and labour children, aged 10–18 years, were recruited....4.5% were HIV infected, 1.7% with hepatitis B virus and 2.6% with hepatitis C virus. HIV prevalence among street children is much higher than general population and, in fact, the rate of positivity comes close to that among female sex workers in Iran. These findings must be an alarm for HIV policymakers to consider immediate and special interventions.

    September 6, 2016
    BMJ

  • Act local, think global: how the Malawi experience of scaling up antiretroviral treatment has informed global policy

    The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Malawi was based on a public health approach adapted to its resource-poor setting, with principles and practices borrowed from the successful tuberculosis control framework....In conclusion, the Malawi experience of ART scale-up has become a blueprint for a public health response to HIV and has informed international efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

    September 6, 2016
    BMC Public Health

  • Key implementers of US global health efforts

    This brief provides an analysis of the implementing organizations that received US global health funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in FY2015. It [builds] on earlier KFF analyses that focused on NGOs only.

    September 6, 2016
    Kaiser Family Foundation Global Health Policy Brief

  • How antibodies protect against HIV-1

    To understand mechanisms of protection by neutralizing antibodies, Liu et al. first treated rhesus macaques with an antibody known to block infection, then infected them with a monkey-adapted HIV-1....Viral DNA and RNA were found in the macaques' gut and lymph nodes a few days after genital tract infection. This suggests that antibodies may block the virus in multiple sites throughout the body, rather than just at the site of entry.

    September 2, 2016
    Antibody Related Research
    Science

  • New vaccine coalition aims to ward off epidemics

    A new public-private coalition that aims to derail epidemics by speeding development of vaccines has now hung its shingle with the backing of the Wellcome Trust and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which launched its website today, grew out of the widespread conviction that vaccines languishing in R&D could have prevented the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.

    September 2, 2016
    Science

  • Does integrating family planning into HIV services improved gender equitable attitudes? Results from a cluster randomized trial in Nyanza, Kenya

    Surveys were conducted with 480 women and 480 men obtaining HIV services from 18 clinics 1 year after the sites were randomized to integrated FP/HIV services or standard referral for FP. Men at intervention sites had stronger gender equitable attitudes than those at control sites. Among women, attitudes did not differ by study arm. Gender equitable attitudes were not associated with contraceptive use among men or women. Further work is needed to understand how integrating FP into HIV care affects gender relations, and how improved gender equity among men might be leveraged.

    September 1, 2016
    AIDS and Behavior

  • Comparative efficacy and safety of first-line antiretroviral therapy for the treatment of HIV infection: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

    The efficacy and safety of ART has substantially improved with the introduction of newer drug classes of antiretrovirals that are now available to patients and HIV care providers. Their improved tolerance could be part of a larger solution to improve retention, which is a challenge, particularly in low-income and middle-income country settings.

    September 1, 2016
    Lancet

  • First-line integrase inhibitors for HIV—prices versus benefits

    In The Lancet HIV, Steve Kanters and colleagues present results from a network meta-analysis, which compares the efficacy and safety of different first-line treatments for HIV infection....However, this meta-analysis has a methodological issue, which limits the applicability of the results.

    September 1, 2016
    Lancet HIV

  • Editorial: Zika response must not drain research funds

    Taking money from much-needed research and health care to develop a vaccine against one disease itself costs lives. One analysis estimated that redirecting money to Ebola and away from common infections such as malaria and HIV caused nearly as many deaths as Ebola itself....Triaging disease research and funding is always a complex issue, and, too often, public sentiment rather than health need drives policy. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

    September 1, 2016
    Nature

  • Affordable HIV drug-resistance testing for monitoring of antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa

    In this Personal View, we discuss the potential role of HIV drug resistance testing for population-based surveillance and individual patient management in sub-Saharan Africa. We review the strengths and challenges of promising low-cost technologies and how they can be implemented.

    August 25, 2016
    Lancet

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