HIV Drugs May Help Protect Young Patients' Hearts: Study

Far from harming the cardiovascular health of infected children, drug cocktails may give benefit

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 22 (HealthDay News) -- Long-term use of powerful drug cocktails known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may help protect the hearts of children and teens infected with HIV, a new study reports.

HAART is a form of antiretroviral therapy that is widely used to treat people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Prior to the introduction of antiretroviral therapies, youngsters infected with HIV were at increased risk for heart failure, noted a team led by Dr. Steven Lipshultz of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Since the advent of powerful HIV-suppressing medications, "the effects of HIV and [antiretroviral therapy] on the cardiovascular system of HIV-infected children are not completely understood," the researchers wrote in the April 22 online issue of JAMA Pediatrics. They pointed out that such children are exposed to these drugs for many years, often beginning while they are still in the womb, but the effects on their cardiovascular systems "are unknown."

The new study sought to clear that up. It included nearly 600 HIV-infected and uninfected patients from 14 pediatric HIV clinics across the United States.

According to the team, heart function was better among HIV-infected children receiving HAART than those who were infected with HIV and did not receive HAART, and children who were exposed to HIV but not infected.

"Our results indicate that the current use of combination [antiretroviral therapy], usually HAART, appears to be cardioprotective in HIV-infected children and adolescents," the study authors reported. "This finding is even more relevant in the developing world where the prevalence of HIV disease in children is much higher."

The researchers added that further study comparing different drug regimens might be beneficial "in optimizing HIV outcomes and protecting long-term cardiac health" of children with HIV.

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Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu Pandemics

Study found coaxing cells in the nose to make super antibodies protected mice and ferrets from pandemic strains

By Brenda Goodman

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) -- Gene therapy that turns cells in the nose into factories that crank out super antibodies against the flu protected mice and ferrets against lethal doses of several pandemic strains of the virus.

If the approach works in humans, it could offer several important advantages over flu vaccines, said study author Dr. James Wilson, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Because the therapy can be made ahead of time and fights many different strains, it might give doctors a faster way to thwart flu pandemics.

Currently, doctors race to identify dangerous new types of flu. They then have to develop a vaccine that targets the new strain. The vaccine is then grown in chicken eggs and tested for safety. It takes between three and six months to manufacture large quantities of vaccines against the flu.

"By the time we realize it's a potential pandemic, it's too late," Wilson said. "The timeliness of deploying the seasonal flu vaccine approach for pandemics is not the best way to go."

Vaccines, which prime the body to remember to attack incoming pathogens, also don't do the best job of protecting people who have diminished immune function, such as seniors and those with chronic health problems.

The new treatment, which is delivered through a nasal spray, gets around that problem because it doesn't require the body to mount an immune attack.

Instead, the nasal spray contains many copies of small, harmless viruses called adeno-associated viruses. The simple genome of these viruses can be altered in the lab to carry instructions for making special proteins called broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies are rare super antibodies that are capable of disarming many kinds of flu strains.

When researchers insert the instructions for making those antibodies into the genome of adeno-associated viruses, the viruses act like Trojan horses. They infect cells in the nose, inject the altered genetic material and turn the cells into factories that crank out many copies of the broadly neutralizing proteins.

"The way I envisioned it was sort of a bioshield," Wilson said. "I wanted to focus the production of the antibody to the site where flu enters our body."

In animal tests, researchers showed that mice, ferrets and monkeys made many copies of the super antibody after they inhaled the gene therapy treatment. And the protection seemed to last for a while. Experts note, however, that promising research in animals often does not pan out in humans.

"In mice, it persists up to a year," Wilson said. "In monkeys, we think we're going to see expression up to six months."

The treatment also appears to work pretty quickly. Wilson said the animals were fully protected about three days after their nasal passages were swabbed.

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'Nonsmoking' Hotel Rooms May Not Fully Protect Guests

Partial smoking bans still left study participants with signs of tobacco exposure

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 14 (HealthDay News) -- People who opt for nonsmoking rooms in hotels with a partial smoking ban are not fully protected from harmful exposure to so-called "thirdhand" smoke, according to a new study.

Smoking in hotels leaves a trail of tobacco pollution in the air and on surfaces in both smoking and nonsmoking rooms, researchers Georg Matt and colleagues at San Diego State University found. New hotels should enforce total smoking bans to protect their guests and employees, said the study authors, who also advised people to avoid hotels that allow smoking in designated areas.

"Our findings demonstrate that some nonsmoking guest rooms in smoking hotels are as polluted with [third-hand smoke] as are some smoking rooms," the researchers wrote. "Moreover, nonsmoking guests staying in smoking rooms may be exposed to tobacco smoke pollutants at levels found among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke."

The study involved 40 budget-priced to mid-range hotels in San Diego. Of these hotels, 10 had complete smoking bans. Thirty hotels had partial smoking bans with designated nonsmoking rooms. The findings appeared online May 13 in the journal Tobacco Control.

The researchers examined the hotel rooms' surfaces and air quality for evidence of nicotine and 3EP, a marker of tobacco smoke. Urine and finger wipe samples were also taken from nonsmokers who spent the night at any of the hotels to assess their exposure to nicotine and a carcinogen found in tobacco smoke known as NKK.

Nonsmoking rooms in hotels with partial smoking bans had evidence of air pollution. These designated nonsmoking rooms had levels of surface nicotine that were more than twice as high as rooms in hotels with total smoking bans, according to a journal news release.

These nonsmoking rooms had air levels of 3EP that were more than seven times as high as the rooms in hotels that did not permit any smoking.

In rooms designated as smoking areas, the researchers found that surface and air nicotine levels were 35 and 22 times higher than the rooms in hotels that had total smoking bans. The air nicotine levels in smoking rooms were also much higher than nonsmoking rooms.

Even the nonsmoking rooms of hotels with partial smoking bans had air nicotine levels that were 40 percent higher than in rooms in hotels with total smoking bans.

The effects of smoking were not confined to the hotel rooms. The study also showed that hallway surfaces outside of smoking rooms had higher nicotine levels than the surfaces outside nonsmoking rooms.

The samples taken from nonsmokers who stayed in hotels with partial smoking bans had higher levels of nicotine and NKK than those staying in nonsmoking hotels.

"Guests who wish to protect themselves from exposure to tobacco smoke should avoid hotels that permit smoking and instead stay in completely smoke-free hotels," the researchers wrote.

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