http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers from the Institut Pasteur and CNRS have set up a new optical microscopy approach that combines two recent imaging techniques in order to visualize molecular assemblies without affecting their biological functions, at a resolution 10 times better than that of traditional microscopes. Using this approach, they were able to observe the AIDS virus and its capsids (containing the HIV genome) within cells at a scale of 30 nanometres, for the first time with light. This newly developed approach represents a significant advance in molecular biology, opening the door to less invasive and more precise analyses of pathogenic microorganisms present in human host cells. This study is already published in the Electronic Edition of PNAS. http://phys.org/news256461479.html Biology Thu, 17 May 2012 08:30:01 EST news256461479 Spanish and Danish researchers have developed a method for the in vivo study of the unknown metabolism of selenium, an essential element for living beings. The technique can help clarify whether or not it possesses the anti-tumour properties that have been attributed to it and yet have not been verified through clinical trials. http://phys.org/news251560132.html Chemistry Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:49:00 EST news251560132 Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules. http://phys.org/news235569893.html Biology Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:05:27 EST news235569893 South Africa's programme to prevent HIV in babies has achieved a 96.5 percent success rate in wiping out transmission from infected pregnant mothers, the Medical Research Council said Thursday. http://phys.org/news226828138.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:49:11 EST news226828138 Researchers are stopping a study that tests a daily pill to prevent infection with the AIDS virus in thousands of African women because partial results show no signs that the drug is doing any good. http://phys.org/news222342982.html Medicine & Health Mon, 18 Apr 2011 10:56:49 EST news222342982 (AP) -- A transplant patient contracted AIDS from the kidney of a living donor, in the first documented case of its kind in the U.S. since screening for HIV began in the mid-1980s. http://phys.org/news219589359.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:02:57 EST news219589359 The first human studies of an oral drug regimen to prevent HIV infection in high-risk individuals yielded a promising near 50% reduction in HIV incidence, but a number of issues require additional research before oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can be implemented on a large scale, according to an article in AIDS Patient Care and STDs, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. http://phys.org/news219325157.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:39:55 EST news219325157 (AP) -- Nearly 3 million lives have been saved by HIV/AIDS treatment but scare resources are being misspent and stigma is still keeping the most vulnerable from seeking help, according to a new book by researchers commissioned by the U.N. http://phys.org/news215934872.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:10:03 EST news215934872 The virus that causes AIDS is chameleon-like in its replication. As HIV copies itself in humans, it constantly mutates into forms that can evade even the best cocktail of current therapies. Understanding exactly how HIV cells change as they reproduce is key to developing better tests and treatments for patients. http://phys.org/news211644083.html Chemistry Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:01:41 EST news211644083 Rutgers researchers have discovered how HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, resists AZT, a drug widely used to treat AIDS. http://phys.org/news204121332.html Medicine & Health Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:22:25 EST news204121332 An ancestor of HIV that infects monkeys is thousands of years older than previously thought, suggesting that HIV, which causes AIDS, is not likely to stop killing humans anytime soon, finds a study by University of Arizona and Tulane University researchers. http://phys.org/news203865547.html Medicine & Health Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:19:58 EST news203865547 (AP) -- Doctors and activists say AIDS patients aren't getting treated because of a nationwide strike in South Africa, the country with the highest incidence of the virus that causes AIDS. http://phys.org/news201951071.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:50:01 EST news201951071 (AP) -- Poverty is perhaps the most important factor in whether inner-city heterosexuals are infected with the AIDS virus, according to the first government study of its kind. http://phys.org/news198746592.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:24:11 EST news198746592 Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have identified a set of naturally occurring antibodies that can block one of the key ways the AIDS virus gains entry into certain blood cells. They say the discovery, published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, expands traditional notions about how the immune system fights HIV and offers a potential new strategy for HIV vaccine design. http://phys.org/news189600644.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:01 EST news189600644 (AP) -- The World Health Organization says it doesn't have enough information to know if it is winning the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis. http://phys.org/news188124423.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:48:15 EST news188124423 A new international study reported in PLoS Medicine confirms that a single dose of nevirapine (sdNVP) can lead to HIV treatment failure in women who receive the drug to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus to their infants. However, the increased risk of failure could only be detected in women who began full HIV treatment within about a year after receiving sdNVP. http://phys.org/news185520959.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:00:01 EST news185520959 (PhysOrg.com) -- An ancestor of the AIDS virus hijacked an entire gene, perhaps from some prehistoric cat it had infected, a gene that makes it much better able to infect humans, according to a study published online today in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The discovery represents the first instance in which researchers have found an entire animal gene within the genome of the human immunodeficiency virus despite 30 years of intense analyses. http://phys.org/news179433709.html Biology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:01:34 EST news179433709 Structural biologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have described the architecture of the complex of protein units that make up the coat surrounding the HIV genome and identified in it a "seam" of functional importance that previously went unrecognized. Those findings, reported today in Cell, could point the way to new treatments for blocking HIV infection. http://phys.org/news177251386.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:40:02 EST news177251386 The AIDS virus inserts its genetic material into the genome of the infected cell. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center have now shown for the first time that the virus almost entirely spares particular sites in the human genetic material in this process. This finding may be useful for developing new, specific AIDS drugs. http://phys.org/news177247951.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:50:02 EST news177247951 (AP) -- In its first study of women's health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44. http://phys.org/news176996772.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:02 EST news176996772 Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, believe conventional vaccine strategies should not be the only avenue explored in the development of an effective AIDS vaccine. Based on studying simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) in African nonhuman primates, they propose an additional new approach to the AIDS vaccine research agenda in a commentary featured in the August issue of Nature Medicine. Their recommendations outline specific research priorities and describe how each may lead to a novel "out of the box" approach for developing an AIDS vaccine. http://phys.org/news168863801.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:38:03 EST news168863801 The virus that causes AIDS is classified as a lentivirus, a word derived from the Latin prefix, "lenti-," meaning "slow." But new research from the NIAID-funded Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology suggests that HIV-1 is anything but - moving at breathtaking speed in destroying and dysregulating the body's gut-based B-cell antibody-producing system. http://phys.org/news166161662.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:01:24 EST news166161662 In a collaborative study with the World Health Organization and seven other laboratories, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have compiled a list of 93 common mutations of the AIDS virus associated with drug resistance that will be used to track future resistance trends throughout the world. http://phys.org/news155558471.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:41:53 EST news155558471 The dogged search for a vaginal gel to thwart the AIDS virus earned some good news on Wednesday as scientists announced that a cheap, commonly-used compound shielded monkeys from a lethal cousin of HIV. http://phys.org/news155394282.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:07:40 EST news155394282 Key differences in immune system signaling and the production of specific immune regulatory molecules may explain why some primates are able to live with an immunodeficiency virus infection without progressing to AIDS-like illness, unlike other primate species, including rhesus macaques and humans, that succumb to disease. http://phys.org/news140779887.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:31:27 EST news140779887