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Globally, human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) is extraordinarily variable, and this diversity poses a major obstacle to AIDS vaccine development. Currently, candidate vaccines are derived from isolates, with the hope that they will be sufficiently cross-reactive to protect against circulating viruses. This may be overly optimistic, however, given that HIV-1 envelope proteins can differ in more than 30% of their amino acids. To contend with the diversity, country-specific vaccines are being considered, but evolutionary relationships may be more useful than regional considerations. Consensus or ancestor sequences could be used in vaccine design to minimize the genetic differences between vaccine strains and contemporary isolates, effectively reducing the extent of diversity by half., Since HIV-1 M group began its expansion in humans roughly 70 years ago (1, 2) it has diversified rapidly (3), now comprising a number of different subtypes and circulating recombinant [...]

IN THE COUNTRIES most severely affected by HIV/AIDS, deficiencies in national statistics make it difficult to gauge the demographic impact of the epidemic. This report analyzes national data on the [...]

In a bold speech in early June marking the 20th anniversary of the first report of HIV/AIDS, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the private sector as well [...]

Community-based AIDS research programs were initially federally funded in 1989. Since then, the Terry Beirn Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS has mandated that research units develop and maintain community advisory boards to provide advice and communicate community preferences in AIDS research. Seventeen community-based AIDS research units formed community advisory boards (CABs) based on a model developed by the Community Consortium at San Francisco General Hospital. Social workers employed by these AIDS research units surveyed 267 CAB members to ascertain board characteristics and members' perceptions of program activities. Implications for social work and future research are discussed. Key words AIDS clinical trials community advisory boards HIV research mission statements, In the burgeoning field of HIV/AIDS research, few published articles on the history, characteristics, and functions of community advisory boards (CABs) exist. In the social work literature, no theoretical contribution [...]

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) manipulates fundamental host cell processes in sophisticated ways to achieve optimum replicative efficiency. Recent studies have provided new details on the molecular interactions of HIV-1 with its host cell. For example, HIV-1 encodes a protein that regulates transcriptional elongation by interacting with a cellular cyclin-dependent kinase, another that activates the specific nuclear export of viral RNA, and several others that affect the intracellular trafficking of viral and host cell proteins. Detailed analysis of the interplay between these viral proteins and normal cellular activities has provided new insights into central questions of virology and host cell biology., HIV-1 is a member of one of the five major primate lineages of the lentivirus family of retroviruses (1). Although the basic steps of the HIV-1 life cycle are the [...]

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of The Congo -- It's easy to see that many things are missing from Kinshasa General Hospital. Overcrowding is so severe that some patients are forced to [...]

The director of the institute of Human Virology of the University of Maryland embodies the relaxed authority of his office. He is new to the job. The job is new [...]

NAIROBI, KENYA, AND HARARE, ZIMBABWE--A few years ago, a major AIDS clinical trial in a nearby African country was compromised because of a serious ethical lapse, says Richard Marlink, director [...]

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS, has penetrated virtually every population on the globe. More than 17 million children, women, and men are infected, with the greatest [...]

Representational difference analysis was used to isolate unique, sequences present in more than 90 percent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) tissues obtained from patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). These sequences [...]

A cDNA for a Protein That Interacts with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Tat Transactivator UNLIKE MOST OTHER RETROVIRUSES, HIV gene expression and replication is dependent on the expression of both [...]

Human CD4 Binds Immunoglobulins THE GLYCOPROTEIN CD4 PARTICIPATES in adhesion of T lymphocytes to target cells [1], thymic development [2], and transmission of intracellular signals during T cell activation [3]. [...]

Enhancement of SIV Infection with Soluble Receptor Molecules The CD4 receptor on human T cells has been shown to play an integral part in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 [...]

Soon after the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control distributed a graphic that illustrated how few cases of HIV infection were known and recognized and how [...]

The human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoproteins interact with receptors on the target cell and mediate virus entry by fusing the viral and cell membranes. The structure of the envelope glycoproteins has evolved to fulfill these functions while evading the neutralizing antibody response. An understanding of the viral strategies for immune evasion should guide attempts to improve the immunogenicity of the HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins and, ultimately, aid in HIV-1 vaccine development., The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1 and HIV-2) and simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) are the etiologic agents of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in their respective human and simian hosts (1). Typically, [...]

PARIS--In 1978, a desperately ill Portuguese taxi driver, who had previously spent time working in Angola, was diagnosed in Paris with a rare form of pneumonia caused by the lung [...]

PARIS AND MARSEILLES -- During the early days of the AIDS epidemic, it seemed that France could do no wrong. In 1983, a multidisciplinary team of physicians and researchers, including [...]

You might think this would be a year of harmony among the loose-knit coalition of groups that advocate increased funding for biomedical research. After all, they have already received a [...]

At the 11th International Conference on AIDS, a formal debate is scheduled on the question of whether 'more fundamental research on vaccine development is iequired prior to the implementation of [...]

As any actor knows, becoming a star often requires more than just good looks and talent. Being 'discovered' can also take a lucky break. That's true even for biomedicine's stars, [...]

Recent publications dealing with sexually transmitted HIV consider how the average number of sexual partners, as well as the rate of partner exchange, can determine the evolution of increased mutation [...]

Infection by human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) is typified by the progressive depletion of CD4 T lymphocytes and deterioration of immune function in most patients. A central unresolved issue in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pathogenesis is the mechanism underlying this T cell depletion. HIV-1 Tat protein was shown to induce cell death by apoptosis in a T cell line and in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells from uninfected donors. This Tat-induced apoptosis was inhibitable by growth factors and was associated with enhanced activation of cyclin-dependent kinases., Termination of the long latency of AIDS in patients infected with HIV-1 is marked by. depletion of CD4 T cells. The mechanism by which HIV-1 kills immune cells remains unresolved [...]

William Paul, appointed to spearhead the assault on AIDS at the National Institutes of Health last month, has unprecedented power to shape the research agenda. William Paul wasn't convinced, last [...]

The idea of a centrally directed, all-out effort to find a cure or vaccine is supported by activists and some scientists, but other researchers are deeply wary Late on Saturday [...]

Sixteen years ago, in the relatively early days of the AIDS epidemic, virologist Jay Levy of the University of California (UC), San Francisco, proposed an answer to one puzzle about [...]

Vol 50, March 2001 * Effect of acquired immune deficiency syndrome wasting on the protein metabolic response to acute exercise. R. Roubenoff, L.W. Abad, and N. Lundgren. 288-292. * Rate [...]

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA--Government health officials are wrestling with a tough decision: Should they approve the most ambitious clinical trials to date of an ADS vaccine, even if the two candidates have [...]

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has fired a salvo at its own AIDS research effort, branding it a 'nontraditional defense program' that should be cut from the defense budget. [...]

It has been suggested that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and thus the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) it causes, was inadvertently introduced to humans by the use of an oral polio vaccine (OPV) during a vaccination campaign launched by the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA, in the Belgian Congo in 1958 and 1959. The 'OPV/AIDS hypothesis' suggests that the OPV used in this campaign was produced in chimpanzee kidney epithelial cell cultures rather than in monkey kidney cell cultures, as stated by H. Koprowski and co-workers, who produced the OPV. If chimpanzee cells were indeed used, this would lend support to the OPV/AIDS hypothesis, since chimpanzees harbor a simian immunodeficiency virus, widely accepted to be the origin of HIV-1. We analyzed several early OPV pools and found no evidence for the presence of chimpanzee DNA; by contrast, monkey DNA is present., In the spring of 2000, a committee set up by the Wistar Institute to investigate the 'OPV/AIDS hypothesis' (1, 2) delivered a total of 14 samples to our laboratory to [...]

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND--In a huge boost for efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine, Bill Gates announced at the World Economic Forum here on 27 January that the foundation named after himself [...]

AIDS researchers are optimistic that preliminary findings on how HIV enters cell nuclei will lead to new therapeutics in the fight against the epidemic Like a lock-picking burglar, HIV slips [...]

Can contracting another disease help suppress HIV? Researchers report intriguing new findings Sometimes the most intriguing ideas come out of left field. Take the peculiar discovery in a new study [...]

PARIS--The closing session of the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, next week will be a proud moment for Italy. That's when Italian researcher Stefano Vella becomes president [...]