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HIV treatments can hold the disease at bay, though stopping the drugs can be a death sentence since it allows infected cells secreted within the immune system to re-emerge, spreading the virus anew. Administering the mix of drugs right after birth may have stopped the virus from forming hidden reservoirs.

Doctors say they have cured an infant born with HIV for the first time by giving her a cocktail of drugs shortly after birth, a result that could point the way toward saving the lives of thousands more infected children.

The baby, whose identity has been kept anonymous, began a regimen of AIDS drugs about 30 hours after she was born at a rural Mississippi hospital, doctors said yesterday at a medical meeting in Atlanta. At 18 months, the mother took the child off the medication. With no signs of the virus for 10 months, the infant was deemed functionally cured, researchers said.

While HIV treatments can hold the disease at bay, stopping them can be a death sentence, allowing infected cells secreted within the immune system to re-emerge. Administering the mix of drugs right after birth may have stopped the virus from forming hidden reservoirs. If confirmed in further studies, the approach could help cure some of the 300,000 children infected yearly.

Some babies here in the U.S. and Western Europe, and an awful lot of babies in the developing world dont have the opportunity for prevention, said Hannah Gay, who treated the infant at the University of Mississippi in Jackson. There would be scores of babies that would benefit if we can find a strategy for intervention that allows us to make this happen in other babies.

Doctors reported the result at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, an annual gathering of more than 4,000 infectious disease researchers.

The development comes at a time when researchers are ramping up efforts to find a cure for AIDS. Drugmakers, including Merck & Co. (MRK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD), are all studying medicines that could completely flush out the virus from infected patients.

Researchers at the meeting said they will continue studying a drug by Merck for a rare type of cancer after it showed early signs of clearing the hidden deposits of HIV, and Gilead announced plans last year to test a cancer drug called Istodax in a small group of HIV patients.

The babys treatment combined lamivudine and zidovudine, both sold by GlaxoSmithKline Plcs joint venture with Pfizer Inc., ViiV Healthcare, and Abbott Laboratories Kaletra.

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HIV-Infected Infant Cured With Early Use of Virus-Blocking Drugs

Montreal, Feb 23 (IANS) Canadian scientists have hit upon a new, more effective substance that can destroy the influenza virus.

Simon Fraser University virologist Masahiro Niikura and his doctoral student Nicole Bance are among an international group of scientists that has discovered a new class of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus.

Working on the premise that too much of a good thing can be a killer, the scientists have advanced previous researchers' methods of manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads, reports Science Daily.

Their new compounds will lead to a new generation of anti-influenza drugs that the virus' strains can't adapt to, and resist, as easily as they do Tamiflu.

It's an anti-influenza drug that is becoming less effective against the constantly mutating flu virus.

The journal Science Express has just published online the scientists' study, revealing how to use their newly discovered compounds to interrupt the enzyme neuraminidase's facilitation of influenza's spread.

The new compounds are also more effective because they're water-soluble.

"They reach the patient's throat where the flu virus is replicating after being taken orally," said Niikura, a Faculty of Health Sciences associate professor.

The rest is here:
Drug discovered against flu virus

Washington, February 22 (ANI): An international group of scientists has discovered a new class of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus.

Their new compounds will lead to a new generation of anti-influenza drugs that the virus' strains can't adapt to, and resist, as easily as they do Tamiful - the anti-influenza drug that is becoming less effective against the constantly mutating flu virus.

Working on the premise that too much of a good thing can be a killer, the team that include Simon Fraser University virologist Masahiro Niikura and his doctoral student Nicole Bance have advanced previous researchers' methods of manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads.

They have described how to use their newly discovered compounds to interrupt the enzyme neuraminidase's facilitation of influenza's spread.

Tamiful and another anti-influenza drug, Relenza, focus on interrupting neuraminidase's ability to help influenza detach from an infected cell's surface by digesting sialic acid, a sugar on the surface of the cell. The flu virus uses the same sugar to stick to the cell while invading it. Once attached, influenza can invade the cell and replicate.

This is where the newly discovered compounds come to the still-healthy cells' rescue. They clog up neuraminidase, stopping the enzyme from dissolving the sialic acid, which prevents the virus from escaping the infected cell and spreading.

The new compounds are also more effective because they're water-soluble. "They reach the patient's throat where the flu virus is replicating after being taken orally," said Niikura, a Faculty of Health Sciences associate professor.

"Influenza develops resistance to Replenza less frequently, but it's not the drug of choice like Tamiful because it's not water-soluble and has to be taken as a nasal spray.

"Our new compounds are structurally more similar to sialic acid than Tamiful. We expect this closer match will make it much more difficult for influenza to adapt to new drugs," Niikura explained.

Ultimately, the new compounds will buy scientists more time to develop new vaccines for emerging strains of influenza that are resistant to existing vaccines.

Excerpt from:
Meet flu virus' new enemy

Published on 18 February 2013 Hits: 964 Written by AFP

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to be vigilant over the spread of a potentially fatal severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS-like virus after a new case in Britain brought the global number to 12.

Based on the current situation and available information, WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections and to carefully review any unusual patterns, the United Nations health agency said in a statement.

On Friday, British health authorities said that a third member of a family had been diagnosed with so-called novel coronavirus, but was not in danger.

Although this new case offers further indications of person-to-person transmission, no sustained person-to-person transmission has been identified, said the Health organization.

Testing for the new coronavirus should be considered in patients with unexplained pneumonias, or in patients with unexplained severe, progressive, or complicated respiratory illness not responding to treatment, it added.

Clusters of cases, and cases among health workers, should be thoroughly investigated wherever they occur, it underlined.

Britains Health Protection Agency said that the latest person to contract the virus was a relative of two other cases announced earlier this week.

The first member of the family, who was confirmed on Monday as having the virus, had just traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan. The two relatives had no recent travel history.

Twelve cases have been reported to the Health agency, with five of them fatalthree in Saudi Arabia and two in Jordan.

Here is the original post:
Countries warned vs. new killer virus

Feb. 21, 2013 Simon Fraser University virologist Masahiro Niikura and his doctoral student Nicole Bance are among an international group of scientists that has discovered a new class of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus.

Working on the premise that too much of a good thing can be a killer, the scientists have advanced previous researchers' methods of manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads.

Their new compounds will lead to a new generation of anti-influenza drugs that the virus' strains can't adapt to, and resist, as easily as they do Tamiful. It's an anti-influenza drug that is becoming less effective against the constantly mutating flu virus.

These increasingly less adequate anti-influenza drugs are currently doctors' best weapons against influenza. They helped the world beat H1N1, swine flu, into submission four years ago.

The journal Science Express has just published online the scientists' study, revealing how to use their newly discovered compounds to interrupt the enzyme neuraminidase's facilitation of influenza's spread.

Tamiful and another anti-influenza drug, Relenza, focus on interrupting neuraminidase's ability to help influenza detach from an infected cell's surface by digesting sialic acid, a sugar on the surface of the cell. The flu virus uses the same sugar to stick to the cell while invading it. Once attached, influenza can invade the cell and replicate.

This is where the newly discovered compounds come to the still-healthy cells' rescue. They clog up neuraminidase, stopping the enzyme from dissolving the sialic acid, which prevents the virus from escaping the infected cell and spreading.

The new compounds are also more effective because they're water-soluble. "They reach the patient's throat where the flu virus is replicating after being taken orally," says Niikura, a Faculty of Health Sciences associate professor.

"Influenza develops resistance to Replenza less frequently, but it's not the drug of choice like Tamiful because it's not water-soluble and has to be taken as a nasal spray.

"Our new compounds are structurally more similar to sialic acid than Tamiful. We expect this closer match will make it much more difficult for influenza to adapt to new drugs."

Read this article:
Influenza study: Meet virus' new enemy