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  • African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) Meeting in Ghana The fifth annual international conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) will be held Nov. 9-11 in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The theme of this year's conference will be improving maternal, newborn, and child health in Africa, which will be discussed by top experts from around the world. ASADI V will kick off with the release of Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children, a new report by several African science academies, assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing maternal and childhood mortality -- the focus of U.N. Millennium Development Goals Four and Five -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The report will include estimates of lives that could be saved if proven scientific methods reached more parts of Africa. 11/9
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10

Reviving Dormant Protein That Resists HIV Could Further Microbicide Research

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

By tinkering with a dormant human gene, researchers at the University of Central Florida have found a way to produce a protein that resists HIV in the lab, the AP/Orlando Sentinel reports (Quintero, AP/Orlando Sentinel, 4/28). The researchers say that the findings could one day be used to create a topical cream, or microbicide, that helps to prevent the transmission of HIV from men to women, McClatchy-Tribune News Service/Journal Gazette reports (McClatchy-Tribune News Service/Journal Gazette, 4/28).

Alexander Cole and colleagues used aminoglycosides – common antibiotics – to wake up the human gene responsible for producing the HIV-resistant proteins called retrocyclin. Though humans and primates share the gene that codes for retrocyclin, which has been shown to prevent HIV transmission in cell cultures, the human gene, unlike the primate gene, does not make the protein on its own, IANS/Hindu reports (IANS/Hindu, 4/28). By applying the aminoglycoside antibiotic to vaginal and cervical cells in the lab, researchers were able to stimulate the cells to make retrocyclin, according to the AP/Orlando Sentinel.

"There is a good chance the aminoglycosides antibiotics will be used in a topical cream as a way to prevent the transmission of HIV from men to women," Cole said, according to McClatchy-Tribune News Service/Journal Gazette. "It could make a huge difference in the fight against HIV," he added.  Though, Cole was cautious to outline a timeframe for the production of an HIV-fighting cream, the AP/Orlando Sentinel reports (AP/Orlando Sentinel, 4/28).  "Much more work would be needed to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of this approach," Cole said, according to IANS/Hindu. "We would certainly have to have human trials, but these findings represent a promising step in that direction" (IANS/Hindu, 4/28).

The study is available online at PLoS Biology.

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.