Health Talk

Sep 27, 2005

<b>HIV cocktail drugs work</b><br>HIV/AIDS –– Cocktails of anti-AIDS drugs cut the rate of progression from infection with HIV to full-blown AIDS by 86% compared to patients not receiving any treatment, British researchers said.

HIV cocktail drugs work
HIV/AIDS –– Cocktails of anti-AIDS drugs cut the rate of progression from infection with HIV to full-blown AIDS by 86% compared to patients not receiving any treatment, British researchers said. They found that the effectiveness of Antiretroviral therapy (ART), a combination of at least three treatments from two drug classes, increased with time. The Swiss study, which involved more than 3,200 patients, said ARVs were however less beneficial for patients who were infected through intravenous drug use.

Modern medicine helps
STROKE –– More than half of all strokes and heart attacks in people with high blood pressure can be prevented by taking a mixture of modern drugs, researchers said recently. The largest study of high blood pressure treatment ever conducted in Europe found newer anti-hypertensive drugs worked better than older ones and had a dramatic impact on patients' health, especially when given with a cholesterol pill. The five-year trial compared the older drug regime with a combination of two newer blood pressure medicines - amlodipine AND perindopril.

Prostrate cancer remedy
CANCER –– Special, high-dose formulations of vitamin D and common, over-the-counter painkillers can greatly slow the growth of prostate cancer tumours, US researchers reported. Combining the two slowed their growth by up to 70% in a laboratory dish, the team at the Stanford University School of Medicine found. Dr. David Feldman and colleagues have started a clinical trial to see if the approach also works in men. Vitamin D can be found in fortified milk, cod liver oil, fish (salmon and mackerel, Tuna sardines), whole egg, cooked liver and beef.

Try Chinese therapy
HEART ATTACK –– Giving B vitamins to heart attack survivors may actually do more harm than good, researchers said. The finding confounds supporters of vitamins, including some doctors, who have argued that folic acid and vitamin B-6 can prevent heart disease by reducing levels of a substance called homocysteine in the blood. A study of over 3,700 patients presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress showed high doses of B vitamins could be bad. Those who took folic acid or vitamin B-6 alone had a small and statistically insignificant increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease, but those who took both saw their risk jump by 20%.

New hope for HIV/AIDS
AIDS –– Scientists have found a molecule that interferes with the formation of HIV, which can lead to new drugs. Current treatments involve a combination of drugs that block the activity of proteins crucial for the production and entry of HIV into cells. However, the virus is learning how to dodge these, making it important to find new HIV drugs. Dr Hans-Georg Kräusslich and his team at Heidelberg University, Germany, working with UK researchers, found a molecule, called Capsid Assembly Inhibitor (CAI), that binds to capsid and prevents it interacting with other capsid proteins. This brings hope for scientists to make a drug that takes on the same shape and function of CAI to block HIV.

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