Federal NDP leader Jack Layton died this morning (August 22, 2011) at his home in Toronto. It is with a profound sense of loss, that we join Canadians across the country who are mourning the death of the Honourable Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Mr. Layton was an ardent champion of gay and lesbian rights and a leading advocate who ensured that HIV/AIDS issues were a priority on the municipal agenda in Toronto and in Canada’s parliament. We will miss his leadership, his passion, his commitment to social justice and his humour.  View Mr.

If you break your arm, you will probably get a cast to hold the bone in place while it heals. Now there is a similar device for your skin: a bandage that prevents injured skin from deforming as it heals, dramatically reducing scarring. Geoffrey Gurtner at Stanford University in California and colleagues say their invention works by immobilising the wound and the surrounding area, shielding it from the stress of everyday activity. “From the wound’s point of view, healing is sort of like trying to build a bridge while someone is driving trucks over it,” saysReinhold Dauskardt, who is also at

In a decisive breakthrough against the spread of HIV, an international study has demonstrated conclusively that antiretroviral therapy blocks the spread of HIV from an infected person to their uninfected partner. The study, which was halted early because the results were so compelling, covered 13 countries and involved 1763 “discordant” couples, in which one partner carried the infection at the outset. In 886 of the couples, the infected partner received antiretroviral drug therapy (ART) straight away, while treatment was delayed in the other 877 couples until the infected partner showed pre-defined signs of sickness. Preliminary results, announced yesterday by the US

For the first time, a vaccine has completely protected monkeys against infection with SIV, a virus related to HIV that infects the animals. Out of 24 immunised rhesus macaques, 12 had long-term protection, with no signs of SIV a year after they were deliberately infected with the virus. “In half the monkeys, we saw a dramatic effect on control of the virus,” says Wayne Koff, the scientific director at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which collaborated in the trial. “We see it as a significant advance.” What made this vaccine different was the use of a live but relatively harmless virus

JUNE marks 30 years since the first report of AIDS – a syndrome that has killed an estimated 25 million people worldwide. Yet this year’s anniversary is somewhat arbitrary: the virus responsible for AIDS has probably been circulating within human populations for 100 years. Why did it take so long to detect it? In June 1981, doctors reported an unusual type of pneumonia in five previously healthy young homosexual men in Los Angeles. Two years later the cause of their immunodeficiency was identified: a retrovirus that targets white blood cells,subsequently named human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Similarities with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)

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

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