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"If we aim to cure this disease, the next set of medications and treatments should be those that target the origin at the molecular level," said Stephen Y. Chan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UPMC Center for Pulmonary Vascular Biology and Medicine at the Vascular Medicine Institute at Pitt, and senior author of the study. "As a community, we are struggling right now to understand those origins of PH, and this study aimed to address that untapped need." Affecting tens of millions of people worldwide, PH is high blood pressure in the arteries in the lungs, which makes it difficult for blood to flow from the heart to the lungs. Symptoms of the disease, which can lead to heart failure, include shortness of breath, fatigue and chest pain; and, in its early stages, might not be noticeable for months or even years. Often a life-threatening condition, it becomes progressively worse, making early and accurate diagnosis important to allow treatments that extend and impr...

Examining HIV transmission events occurring in 169 heterosexual couples in Zambia, the researchers found that almost a third of potential immune target sites in the virus that established infection were "pre-adapted" to the immune response in the newly-infected partner. That means that HIV had already evolved to evade immune scrutiny in the newly-infected person. The researchers' findings suggest that designers of vaccines against HIV should focus on regions of conserved viral proteins that do not become adapted in the same way. The study, published Monday, Aug. 22 in  Journal of Experimental Medicine , was led by Eric Hunter, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Emory Vaccine Center and Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Hunter is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research. The first author is postdoctoral fellow Daniela C. Mónaco, PhD. This analys...

A 3mm punch is taken from a dried blood spot and despatched to the lab to evaluate PrEP drug ranges. Credit score: CU Anschutz Medical Campus Researchers on the Skaggs College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at CU Anschutz have developed a way that estimates an HIV-negative affected person's adherence to medication prescribed to stop HIV transmission throughout intercourse. The take a look at measures traces of antiretroviral medication in a spot of dried blood to find out how a lot pre-exposure prophylactic, or PrEP, drugs a affected person has used. Truvada, the one FDA-approved antiretroviral PrEP drug for HIV prevention, is confirmed greater than 90 % efficient in stopping HIV transmission throughout intercourse -- in those that use it persistently. The assay method supplies an goal technique to inform if sufferers are utilizing PrEP persistently. "There is a have to objectively measure PrEP...