(Press-News.org) Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have mapped the transmission network of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in San Diego. The mapping of HIV infections, which used genetic sequencing, allowed researchers to predictively model the likelihood of new HIV transmissions and identify persons at greatest risk for transmitting the virus.
The findings are published online in the June 5 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
"The more we understand the structure and dynamics of an HIV transmission network, the better we can identify 'hot spots' of transmission," said Susan Little, MD, professor of medicine at the UC San Diego AntiViral Research Center and lead author of the study.
"Not everyone who is HIV-infected is equally likely to transmit the infection to others. There are clusters of more active disease transmission. We can use this information to target treatment interventions to those most likely to transmit the virus to others and markedly reduce the number of new infections."
The researchers analyzed the HIV-1 sequence data from recently HIV-1 infected persons and their sexual and social contacts in San Diego, between 1996 and 2011. Sequence data were collected as part of routine HIV genetic testing used to determine if a virus is resistant to certain classes of HIV medications. Genetic similarities between viral sequences infecting different people were compared. Viruses from two people with a high degree of genetic similarity were suggestive of a transmission link. The scientists noted that viral similarity does not independently prove that a transmission occurred, only that the individuals are part of a closely connected transmission network.
Within the observed HIV transmission network, researchers calculated a transmission network score (TNS) to estimate the risk of HIV transmission from a newly diagnosed individual to a new partner. Participants with a high TNS were significantly more likely than those with low TNS to develop a close linkage to another person within their first year of HIV infection, suggestive of onward transmission.
Through network modeling, investigators showed that using this information to deploy antiretroviral therapy (ART) to individuals with the highest TNS resulted in a significantly greater likelihood of reduced new HIV-1 transmissions than providing ART to the same number of randomly selected individuals.
"Focusing our prevention and treatment resources to the populations at greatest risk of transmission could dramatically reduce the number of new infections associated with these populations," said Little. "Used in conjunction with traditional partner services, TNS-guided treatment and prevention interventions could markedly lower rates of new HIV infection in our community."
INFORMATION:
Co-authors include Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond, Christy M. Anderson, Jason Young, Joel O. Wertheim and Sanjay R. Mehta, UC San Diego; Susanne May, University of Washington; Davey M. Smith, UC San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
HIV transmission networks mapped to reduce infection rate
2014-06-06
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Alcohol may protect trauma patients from later complications
2014-06-06
Injured patients who have alcohol in their blood have a reduced risk for developing cardiac and renal complications, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Among patients who did develop complications, those with alcohol in their blood were less likely to die.
The study is published in the June issue of the journal Alcohol.
"After an injury, if you are intoxicated there seems to be a substantial protective effect," says UIC injury epidemiologist Lee Friedman, author of the study. "But we don't fully understand why this ...
Is glaucoma a brain disease?
2014-06-06
Rockville, Md. — Findings from a new study published in Translational Vision Science & Technology (TVST) show the brain, not the eye, controls the cellular process that leads to glaucoma. The results may help develop treatments for one of the world's leading causes of irreversible blindness, as well as contribute to the development of future therapies for preserving brain function in other age-related disorders like Alzheimer's.
In the TVST paper, Refined Data Analysis Provides Clinical Evidence for Central Nervous System Control of Chronic Glaucomatous Neurodegeneration, ...
Clinical review published in JAMA
2014-06-06
Many women experience bothersome urine loss with laughing, coughing and sneezing (stress urinary incontinence) AND on their way to the bathroom (urge urinary incontinence). When women experience both types of urine leakage, their condition is called mixed urinary incontinence. It is estimated that 20 to 36 percent of women suffer from mixed urinary incontinence, which is challenging to diagnose and treat because symptoms vary and guidelines for treatment are not clear.
A clinical review entitled "Clinical Crossroads – Female Mixed Urinary Incontinence" by Deborah L. ...
Prostate cancer biomarkers identified in seminal fluid
2014-06-06
Improved diagnosis and management of one of the most common cancers in men – prostate cancer – could result from research at the University of Adelaide, which has discovered that seminal fluid (semen) contains biomarkers for the disease.
Results of a study now published in the journal Endocrine-Related Cancer have shown that the presence of certain molecules in seminal fluid indicates not only whether a man has prostate cancer, but also the severity of the cancer.
Speaking in the lead-up to Men's Health Week (9-15 June), University of Adelaide research fellow and lead ...
Toward a better drug against malaria
2014-06-06
This news release is available in German.
A research team led by Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte of the University of Freiburg/ Germany has succeeded in describing how the antimalarial drug atovaquone binds to its target protein. The scientists used x-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the protein with the active substance bound. The drug combination atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone®) is a medication used worldwide for the prevention and treatment of malaria. The data and the resulting findings concerning the mode of action of atovaquone could ...
Football for untrained 70-year-old men
2014-06-06
Research carried out by the Copenhagen Centre for Team Sport and Health in Denmark shows that untrained elderly men get markedly fitter and healthier as a result of playing football (soccer). After only 4 months of twice-weekly 1-hour training sessions, the men achieved marked improvements in maximum oxygen uptake, muscle function and bone mineralization.
Later today, three scientific articles will be published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports describing the fitness and health effects of football training for 63‒75-year-old untrained men. ...
Deadly diseases overlooked for too long, scientists say
2014-06-06
Decades of neglect have allowed infectious diseases to devastate the lives of thousands of people in the developing world, a study reveals.
Researchers say three diseases in particular – anthrax, brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis – have failed to receive the official recognition and funding needed to combat them effectively.
All three impact greatly on human and animal health in developing nations, posing a major threat to safe and plentiful food supplies.
The disorders – known as zoonotic diseases – are spread between animals and humans. They are common ...
Saving trees in tropics could cut emissions by one-fifth, study shows
2014-06-06
Reducing deforestation in the tropics would significantly cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere – by as much as one-fifth – research shows.
In the first study of its kind, scientists have calculated the amount of carbon absorbed by the world's tropical forests and the amounts of greenhouse gas emissions created by loss of trees, as a result of human activity.
They found that tropical forests absorb almost two billion tonnes of carbon each year, equivalent to one-fifth of the world's carbon emissions, by storing it in their bark, leaves and soil. ...
York scientists provide new insights into biomass breakdown
2014-06-06
Scientists at the University of York are playing a key role in the quest for a better understanding of how a recently discovered family of enzymes can degrade hard-to-digest biomass into its constituent sugars.
The enzymes – lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) – are secreted by both fungi and bacteria and have the ability to 'chip away' at cellulose and other intractable materials. This allows cellulosic materials such as plant stems, wood chips and cardboard waste, as well as other tricky polysaccharides such as insect/crustacean shells, to be broken down.
Finding ...
Infection in malaria-transmitting mosquito discovered
2014-06-06
Boston, MA – Researchers have found the first evidence of an intercellular bacterial infection in natural populations of two species of Anopheles mosquitoes, the major vectors of malaria in Africa. The infection, called Wolbachia, has been shown in labs to reduce the incidence of pathogen infections in mosquitoes and has the potential to be used in controlling malaria-transmitting mosquito populations.
"Wolbachia is an interesting bacterium that seems perfectly suited for mosquito control. However, there were strong doubts that it could ever be used against field Anopheles ...