The Lesotho government in partnership with the European Union and UNICEF has begun a pilot project to provide monetary assistance to children whose parents have died of AIDS-related causes, Inter Press Service reports. The pilot project — called the Lesotho Child Grants Program — will be rolled out in 1,200 households in the Mafeteng, Maseru and Qacha’s Nek districts.

The program will provide a quarterly cash grant of $38 to help cover the costs of school fees, uniforms, health care and other needs for the children and will target low-income households caring for AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children, as well as child-headed households. The grants likely will be extended to similar households in other areas of the country by the end of 2011, Inter Press Service reports. Each community participating in the program has formed a Village Verification Committee to support the government in identifying households with eligible children. The first payments will be disbursed in July, with additional payments expected in October and January 2010, according to Inter Press Service.

Peter Beck Christiansen, E.U. ambassador to Lesotho, at a ceremony to mark the program’s launch, said, “We discovered that all aspects of fighting HIV/AIDS had been done, but the biggest gap was to mitigate the effects on the innocent orphans and other vulnerable children, who are paying the price, and society’s lack of understanding of how to fight the disease individually and as a group.” He added that a shift in cultural attitudes regarding sex is necessary to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. “May the adults of Lesotho have the energy, desire and will to change their behavior to avoid adding more orphans to the communities,” Christiansen said, adding that Lesotho’s health and social welfare minister should appeal to the cabinet to enact the national Child Protection and Welfare Bill.

Aichatou Diawara-Flambert, UNICEF representative in Lesotho, added that the agency’s main concern is ensuring that children have access to basic needs. She added, “Evidence from other cash-transfer initiatives around the world indicate that the additional income provided through cash grants is used for health, nutrition and education.” In addition, the “cash transfers do not replace other forms of assistance but complement other mechanisms supporting the needy,” Diawara-Flambert said.

Lesotho has the third-highest HIV prevalence worldwide, and about 23.2% of the country’s population of 1.8 million is HIV-positive, according to Inter Press Service. As of 2007, UNICEF estimated that about 110,000 of Lesotho’s 160,000 orphans had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS-related causes (Mutungamiri, Inter Press Service, 5/4).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

New findings just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researchers suggest that antioxidant therapy could help prevent and treat Kaposi’s sarcoma, a major AIDS-related malignancy. Even though the number of cases has gone down with the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy, Kaposi’s sarcoma still has a high death rate, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Recently it has been found that the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) is responsible for the development of Kaposi’s hallmark skin and mucosal lesions, making it a class of tumors induced by a viral infection. While the human herpesvirus 8 causes the disease, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the tumors have remained an enigma.

Scientists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and other collaborating universities have been able to reproduce Kaposi’s sarcoma in mice by overexpressing a single protein. The researchers found that as mice age, overexpression of Rac1, in a form that is constitutively activated, triggers the development of a tumor that has all the scientific characteristics of human Kaposi’s sarcoma.

“The protein Rac1 triggers the activation of an enzyme that produces superoxide, a strong oxidant which leads to molecular reactions that promote the proliferation of tumor cells that exactly resemble human Kaposi’s sarcoma,” explains Enrique Mesri, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Miller School and Sylvester and corresponding author of the study. “Superoxide and derived reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are strong oxidants that cause damage at the molecular level, can also damage the DNA and prevent the expression of tumor suppressor genes such as p53.”

The production of these strong oxidants also triggers the overexpression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1-a which regulates the expression of molecules that enhance angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels feed a tumor leading to its malignancy. After understanding the molecular pathways of Kaposi’s sarcoma, the scientists set out to determine if the oxidant ROS were directly related to the development of the cancer.

“We gave half the mice regular water, while the other half received water supplemented with the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC),” explains Qi Ma, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate at the Miller School and lead author of the study. “The mice given the antioxidant never grew tumors, and in the ones that had tumors the NAC prevented them from growing.”

NAC is known to promote the reduction of glutathione, which is an important cellular re-agent that buffers the oxidation of protein in cells. Reduced glutathione can prevent the oxidation of proteins, allowing NAC to suppress tumor development and growth.

“Our study provides not only a new understanding of the molecular pathways that are contributing to the formation of Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions, but it also suggests mechanisms by which Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions could be prevented in patients with HIV or other susceptibilities,” said Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., who is also a corresponding author of the study. “The scientific team will continue to investigate the possibility that NAC and other antioxidants could help prevent and suppress the growth of Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions. We are also looking at additional molecular mechanisms that contribute to Kaposi’s sarcoma to more effectively intervene in the development of this dreadful cancer.”

Source
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Dr. C. Richter (Rick) King, former Senior Vice President of Research at GenVec, Inc., has joined the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) as Vice President of Vaccine Discovery. In his new position, Dr. King will play a vital role in leading and managing IAVI’s global vaccine discovery initiatives in support of IAVI’s mission: to ensure the development of a safe, effective, accessible and preventive AIDS vaccine.

A biochemist by training, Dr. King received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University and his BS from the University of St. Andrews. He has worked in government, academia and in industry, and is well known for his innovative discoveries in cancer biology. He played an integral role in the discovery of a molecular abnormality that occurs with certain breast cancers. This breakthrough led to the development of better diagnostic tools and targeted treatments for breast cancer.

For the past decade, Dr. King’s role at GenVec has been to translate scientific discovery into experimental treatments and preventative agents for unmet medical needs. He has led the company’s efforts in the identification, selection and advancement of products for cancer, ocular and infectious disease applications. These include a therapeutic for pancreatic cancer currently in Phase III clinical trial, a therapeutic for age-related macular degeneration in Phase Ib trials, and viral vector based vaccines for prevention of malaria and HIV currently in Phase I/II trials. Dr. King has been the author and recipient of many peer reviewed grants, is an inventor on 12 issued patents, and has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications.

“We are excited to have a scientist of Dr. King’s caliber join our research and development team,” said Dr. Wayne Koff, Senior Vice President, Research and Development at IAVI. “Dr. King’s experience will prove indispensable in leading our global efforts to design and prioritize novel AIDS vaccine strategies.”

“One of the biggest challenges of any vaccine discovery effort is determining the vaccine candidates that are worth pursuing and those that are not,” said King. “My job at IAVI will be to work together with IAVI scientists and partners to do just that. There are several innovative vaccine candidates currently in pre-clinical development at IAVI, and I hope to help bring the most promising ones into human testing over the next few years.”

As evidence has grown that creating an effective AIDS vaccine requires more applied research aimed at solving the key scientific problems impeding AIDS vaccine development, IAVI has significantly expanded its vaccine discovery portfolio. Dr. King will oversee a comprehensive AIDS vaccine discovery program that now includes:

- an Innovation Fund focused on supporting novel vaccine discovery platforms from industry

- a Human Immunology Laboratory in London linked to partnered Clinical Research Centers in the developing world focused on translating clues from HIV infection to vaccine discovery

- an AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory in New York focused on the design and prioritization of novel vaccine platforms and

- the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California focused on solving the problem of how to create a vaccine that elicits antibodies capable of neutralizing HIV.

To date, there have only been two AIDS vaccine candidates that have been fully tested in human efficacy trials; both proved ineffective at preventing or controlling HIV infection. With 2.5 million people infected with HIV each year, there remains an urgent need for a safe and effective AIDS vaccine.

Source
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

Rhode Island’s legislature currently is considering a bill (H.B. 5415) that would eliminate a requirement that a person sign his or her name before undergoing an HIV test, which “would essentially make getting an HIV test more like getting any other medical test,” Brian Alverson, assistant pediatrics professor at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School and head of the Section of Pediatric Hospitalists at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, writes in a Providence Journal opinion piece. According to Alverson, although opponents contend that the bill “would lead to more people being tested against their will,” the “problem … is that people who need the test aren’t getting it.” He continues that the “evidence is overwhelming that eliminating the signature would decrease the burden of HIV in Rhode Island” because “[w]hen people know their HIV status, they are much less likely to spread the disease.”

Although HIV clinics typically do not encounter difficulty obtaining signatures for tests, some people do not receive HIV screenings until they develop late-onset disease “because in hospitals, emergency rooms and primary care offices, getting the form and signature are bothersome and an impediment to testing,” Alverson writes. He continues that if physicians detect HIV early, “one can expect to live well into old age.” However, testing delays “incur a grave risk of death” and can lead to the development of AIDS, he writes.

According to Alverson, Rhode Island three years ago passed a law eliminating the signature requirement for HIV tests for pregnant women. Alverson writes that “[t]his simple change to the law works” because HIV testing rates for pregnant women rose from 53% to 93% and Rhode Island went from having the sixth highest rate of HIV-positive infants to having zero new cases. In addition, the bill not only prevented HIV among infants, it also saved Rhode Island about $5 million in health care expenditures, Alverson writes.

According to Alverson, Rhode Island has reported about 150 new HIV cases since the state General Assembly last year delayed the current bill for further consideration. He continues, “There is more HIV in Rhode Island now than ever before, and we have to move to stop this horrible disease. We cannot afford to put this off another year.” Alverson concludes, “Clearly, the legislature must pass this bill” (Alverson, Providence Journal, 5/1).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.