Latest news with #cure
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Locals walk to find cure for rare autoimmune disease
BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) — Locals took a step toward finding a cure for a rare autoimmune disease on Saturday. About 150 people took part in the 22nd annual Stepping Out to Cure Scleroderma Walk at Boardman Park. The walk is hosted by the Lower Great Lakes Chapter of the National Scleroderma Foundation. It's the chapter's biggest event of the year to raise money and awareness for the disease. 'It's a rare autoimmune disease, and there are many different cases and journeys. Everyone's journey is different, and what it does — there's two different cases. It can attack the internal organs and also your skin as well,' said Dionna Bartos, executive director for the Lower Great Lakes Chapter of the National Scleroderma Foundation. The money raised through the walk will go to advance medical research, promote awareness of scleroderma and provide support for patients and their families. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Major HIV breakthrough forces hidden fragments of the virus to emerge so it can be cleared from the body
Experts could have found a way to be one step closer to curing HIV for good. Researchers in Australia has developed a new treatment that forces hidden fragments of the virus - normally concealed within human cells - to emerge and expose themselves to the immune system. The breakthrough could enable the body, aided by antiviral drugs, to detect and destroy any lingering viral reservoirs. HIV has remained incurable because the virus can integrate itself into a cell's DNA, laying dormant and undetectable to both medication and immune defenses. Scientists said they've created a nanoparticle capable of delivering genetic instructions to infected cells, prompting them to produce a signal that reveals the virus's presence. Dr Paula Cevaal of the Doherty Institute and co-author of the study told The Guardian that the feat was 'previously thought impossible'. Cevaal said: 'In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don't make it into the clinic, that is the unfortunate truth; I don't want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality. 'But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus. 'So, from that point of view, we're very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans.' The discovery was first revealed in the journal Nature Communications, where researchers said they were initially so astonished that they had to rerun the tests. Further research would be needed to determine whether revealing the virus would be enough to trigger an immune response, with tests only being carried out in the lab. It could still take years before clinical trials for the drug began, when it would have to go through rigorous testing before reaching consumers. However, the advance represents another step forward for the 1.2 million Americans currently living with an HIV infection - for which they took drugs daily. An estimated 31,800 people were believed to be infected every year, although that's a 12 per cent decline on five years ago. Globally, nearly 40 million people have the virus. The new nanoparticle's based on mRNA technology, the same as was used in covid vaccines made by Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers. In their paper, the scientists revealed that they could deliver mRNA instructions to cells using the nanoparticle. The mRNA then instruct cells to generate substances that reveal the presence of HIV, but only if the virus was present. The study done in the laboratory was carried out in cells donated by HIV patients.
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Overwhelmed': Major breakthrough from Aussie researchers in HIV study
Australian researchers have found a way to force the HIV virus out of hiding within cells, opening the way to eradicate the virus from the body. The human immunodeficiency virus is able to hide within white blood cells, presenting a serious roadblock for scientists pursuing a cure. Research from Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, published in late-May, says work towards a cure is one step closer. The next hurdle is analysing whether revealing the virus allows the body's immune system to fight off the virus or if additional treatments need to be combined. 'In terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus,' co-author Paula Cevaal told the Guardian. 'We were overwhelmed by how night-and-day difference it was – from not working before, and then all of a sudden it was working. And all of us were just sitting gasping like, 'Wow'.' The HIV that hides in white blood cells can reactivate. The Peter Doherty Institute researchers used custom-made fat bubbles to deliver mRNA into cells where HIV is hiding. The mRNA tells the cells to reveal the virus. Messenger RNA is a molecule that contains instructions for cells to make a protein. The technology rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic. People with HIV have to take medication for their entire life to suppress the virus, avoid symptoms and to stop transmission to other people. About 30,000 Australians live with HIV. In 2023, 722 new cases were reported to health authorities. Globally, in 2023, an estimated 500,000 to 820,000 people died from HIV-related causes.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Doctors make breakthrough in HIV cure search: 'We've never seen anything close to as good'
Experts may have moved one step closer to curing HIV for good. Researchers in Australia have developed a new treatment that forces hidden fragments of the virus — normally concealed within human cells — to emerge and expose themselves to the immune system. The breakthrough could enable the body, aided by antiviral drugs, to detect and destroy these lingering viral reservoirs. HIV has remained incurable because the virus can integrate itself into a cell's DNA, lying dormant and undetectable to both medication and immune defenses. But the scientists say they have created a nanoparticle capable of delivering genetic instructions to infected cells, prompting them to produce a signal that reveals the virus's presence. Dr Paula Cevaal, research fellow at the Doherty Institute and co-author of the study, told the Guardian that this feat was 'previously thought impossible'. 'In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don't make it into the clinic,' she said, 'that is the unfortunate truth; I don't want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality'. 'But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus. 'So, from that point of view, we're very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans.' The discovery was first revealed in the journal Nature Communications, with researchers saying they were initially so astonished that they had to re-run the tests. Further research will be needed to determine whether revealing the virus is enough to trigger an immune response, with the tests only being carried out in the lab. And it could still take years before clinical trials for the drug begin, when it would have to go through rigorous testing before reaching consumers. But the advance represents another step forward for the 1.2million Americans currently living with an HIV infection — for which they must take drugs daily. An estimated 31,800 people are infected every year, although this is a 12 percent decline on five years ago. Globally, nearly 40million people have the virus. The nanoparticle is based on mRNA technology, the same that was used in the Covid vaccines made by Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers. In their paper, the scientists revealed that they could deliver mRNA instructions to cells using the nanoparticle. This mRNA then instructs cells to generate substances that reveal the presence of HIV, but only if the virus is present. The study was done in the lab, and carried out in cells donated by HIV patients. It comes after the Trump administration was reported to have cut funding for research into a potential HIV vaccine. The termination of the $258million research program stunned scientists at Duke University and Scripps Research Institute behind the project. HIV disproportionately affects gay and bisexual individuals in the US, who account for an estimated 67 percent of new infections — according to 2022 data. People who acquire HIV through heterosexual sex made up 22 percent of new diagnoses, or 8,495 cases, while those who were diagnosed after injecting drugs made up seven percent of new diagnoses, or 2,650 cases.
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Major breakthrough in battle for HIV cure ‘previously thought impossible'
Scientists have found a breakthrough in the search for a cure for HIV, after research uncovered a development 'previously thought impossible'. HIV can 'hide' itself in white blood cells, meaning the immune system and treatment drugs are unable to find and tackle them. However, researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have now found a way to force the virus out of some human cells it was hiding within. This could potentially allow the immune system or drugs to identify the virus and clear it, meaning researchers are one step closer to a cure. Dr Paula Cevaal, research fellow at the Doherty Institute and co-first author of the study published in Nature Communications, told The Guardian that delivering mRNA to the cells was 'previously thought impossible', as they did not take up the LNPs used to carry it. But the team then developed a new type of lipid nanoparticles (LNP), which allowed mRNA technology to be delivered to the blood cells. The mRNA then instructs the cells to reveal the virus. She told the paper that the team initially thought the results were 'too good to be true', adding that they hoped the new nanoparticle design could be a 'new pathway to an HIV cure'. 'We sent her back into the lab to repeat it, and she came back the next week with results that were equally good,' she said. 'So we had to believe it. And of course, since then, we've repeated it many, many, many more times. 'We were overwhelmed by how [much of a] night and day difference it was – from not working before, and then all of a sudden it was working. And all of us were just sitting gasping like, 'wow'.' She added: 'In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don't make it into the clinic – that is the unfortunate truth; I don't want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality, 'But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus. 'So from that point of view, we're very hopeful that we are also able to see this type of response in an animal, and that we could eventually do this in humans.' The study was done using cells donated by HIV patients. More research will now have to be done to see if the steps taken to reveal the virus will result in the body's immune system will be able to tackle it. It will likely take years of further safety testing before the new discovery could be used in human trials.
