Health and Medicine

The results from a longitudinal study of the relative frequency of various types of HIV mutations associated with the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) were presented today at a meeting of leading AIDS researchers. The study showed that the prevalence of most key mutations associated with antiretroviral resistance have changed significantly from 1999-2002.

Specifically, the results showed that the prevalence of thymidine analog mutations (TAMs) and other key mutations associated with HIV

In a demonstration of vaccine therapy’s potential for treating lung cancer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists and their associates report that a prototype vaccine boosted the natural immune response to tumors in a small group of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Moreover, the vaccine was found to be non-toxic and well-tolerated.

Published in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, findings from the Phase I clinical trial will provide an impetus

In a discovery with far-reaching potential for advances in infertility treatment, scientists at the University of Leeds have identified what makes sperm wriggle and swim. The answer lies in a protein called dynein. The scientists have taken the first photographs of individual molecules of dynein, also found in lungs, the nervous system and elsewhere in the human body. In an article in this week’s Nature, the researchers explain how the protein creates movement.

Project leader Dr Peter Knight

New findings may offer roadmap to predicting how the body will respond to a deadly habit

First- or second-hand exposure to cigarettes can lead to a variety of diseases, including tissue destruction found in pulmonary emphysema and osteoporosis. Also included among cigarette smoking-induced diseases are disorders in which an excessive deposition of fibrotic scar occurs, such as with atherosclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Collagen is the major protein of the white f

Differences in people seem to run in the blood, according to a recent study that examines which genes are active in blood cells. The work, published in this week’s online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the levels of several genes used by blood cells vary from person to person.

“Nobody had taken this broad a look at genetic variation in the blood of healthy people,” said David Relman, MD, associate professor of medicine at Stanford and a co-autho

Green fluorescence allows isolating the beta cells for study of their behavior and number in the pancreas

Diabetes mellitus (DM) affects at least 16 million Americans, ranks seventh as a cause of death in the United States, and costs the national economy over $100 billion yearly. About 95 percent of persons with DM have type 2.

Type 2 DM is characterized by insulin resistance in peripheral tissues as well as a defect in insulin secretion by beta cells. Insulin regulates ca