Early Therapy May Lead to HIV Remission (CME/CE)

Early Therapy May Lead to HIV Remission (CME/CE)

Preliminary data from a French randomized trial suggest that early HIV treatment might be a step toward so-called post-treatment control, a researcher said here.

Post-treatment control is what investigators are calling the ability to stop HIV therapy -- after some time on treatment -- without having the virus resume replication within the body.

Some 14 patients -- known as the Visconti cohort and all treated within weeks of their infection -- have been shown to have such control, some for several years, according to Antoine Cheret, MD, of Sorbonne-Paris-Cite University in Paris.

Early HIV Treatment Restores Immune System (CME/CE)

Early HIV Treatment Restores Immune System (CME/CE)

Antiretroviral therapy can restore aspects of a normal immune system in some patients with chronic HIV, as well as reduce the size of the viral reservoir, a researcher said here.

The catch is they have to start with a relatively intact immune system, with at least 500 CD4-positive T cells per microliter of blood, according to Laurent Hocqueloux, MD, of the Centre Hospitalier Régional in Orleans, France.

2 New Alzheimer's Drugs Show Promise in Early Studies

2 New Alzheimer's Drugs Show Promise in Early Studies

Researchers say two new drugs for Alzheimer's disease have shown promise in early experiments and will likely progress to the next round of clinical trials.
One drug, called a BACE inhibitor, has been in development for more than 10 years. In very early tests, it dramatically reduced levels of beta amyloid, a sticky protein that forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
The second drug is thought to reduce damaging inflammation. Patients with mild mental impairment who took the drug for over a year saw significant improvements in some measures of memory and thinking.