The OAN is seeking individuals to join our Board of Directors. We are seeking committed Board members to strategically lead the organization and help us meet our mandate. Serving on the Board is an extraordinary opportunity for someone who is passionate about Ontario’s HIV sector. The OAN is committed to ensuring that people with HIV/AIDS have a leading voice in governing the organization. In accordance with the provisions of OAN By-Laws, a majority of the Board of Directors must be people who are living with HIV (PLWHIV). Candidates seeking to fill a PLWHIV designated position must be willing to disclose their
Read More →A PIONEERING treatment to thwart HIV by genetically altering blood cells so the virus cannot invade them has shown promisein the first nine people to receive it. The treatment involves taking the white blood cells most prone to infection by HIV, called CD4+ cells, from someone with HIV. These are then altered in the lab to sabotage a gene called CCR5, before being returned to the patient. Because CCR5makes the molecular “door-handle” by which HIV enters cells, treated cells become impossible for the virus to infect. “This is the first example of genetic editing to introduce a disease-resistant gene in patients,” says lead investigator Carl June at the
Read More →For the first time, an HIV-like infection has been cleared from an animal without the use of antiviral drugs. The infection was eliminated from mice using a human protein that peps up immune cells. Marc Pellegrini from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues infected mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), which causes a chronic infection that spreads throughout the body. “The virus overwhelms mice, mimicking the massive viral loads associated with HIV infection in humans,” says Pellegrini. Eight days after infection, some of the mice were injected with human interleukin-7 (IL-7) – a chemical messenger that plays
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