Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Drug-resistant HIV Easier To Detect With New Test

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Drug-resistant HIV Easier To Detect With New Test

    Drug-resistant HIV Easier To Detect With New Test

    08 Jan 2007 <INPUT onclick="return printPage()" type=button value="Click to Print">

    Scientists in the US have developed a new assay or test that detects drug-resistant strains of HIV more quickly than the ones currently available.

    The new method appears in the life sciences journal Nature Methods, and comes from the Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina.

    Current methods are able to detect drug-resistant forms of HIV but only at high levels, which brings an inevitable delay in the treatment. This new test is more sensitive and finds traces at low levels, say the researchers. And it can be done from one blood test. This will help patients with drug-resistant HIV to get the right treatment much earlier.

    People who have HIV may well be under siege from a number of forms of the virus, since it mutates rapidly and some of the strains become drug resistant. It is a race against time to find these and alter treatment appropriately.

    A representative of the Terrence Higgins Trust, a British charity that promotes greater public understanding of HIV and AIDS and campaigns on various issues associated with HIV, welcomed this development because the current methods are usually too expensive and don't always give an accurate reading. If this test is easier and cheaper, "it will improve treatment outcomes for people living with HIV, " he said.

    Not only does the new test detect very low levels of HIV strains (down to 0.01 per cent), it can also differentiate among them, making it a useful means of singling out the unique pattern of infection in a particular individual. This would help scientists to track the progress of HIV mutations and get to know more about how drug resistance develops, not only in HIV but other viral diseases such as hepatitis and TB.

    HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, a type of retrovirus that causes Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition where the immune system gradually collapses and leaves itself open to infections, including life-threatening ones.

    A retrovirus is a type of virus with RNA genetic material instead of DNA. It invades host cells, and spreads by making DNA-based copies of itself and by fusing itself into the genetic material of the host cells. Some retroviruses are thought to be harmless ("junk DNA" forms a large part of the human genome), but in the case of HIV it gets into immune system cells like T- cells and alters their behaviour.

    HIV spreads from host to host via body fluids like blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. HIV is now pandemic and it is estimated that 25 million people worldwide have died from HIV/AIDS since 1981 and that 0.6 per cent of humans on this planet are infected with HIV (UN statistics).

    Treatment of people infected with HIV consists primarily of anti-retrovirals and is leading to improvements in the life expectancy of sufferers.

    "Detection of minor drug-resistant populations by parallel allele-specific sequencing."
    Fangping Cai, Haifeng Chen, Charles B Hicks, John A Bartlett, Jun Zhu, & Feng Gao.
    Nature Methods, Published online: 7 January 2007; doi:10.1038/nmeth995

    Global statistics on HIV/AIDS (Avert, UK charity).

    Written by: Catharine Paddock
    Writer: Medical News Today Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/heal...p?newsid=60347
Working...
X