Prevention, treatment and future challenges of HIV/AIDS: A decade of INDEPTH research

Abstract

a b s t r a c tAim: To present a systematic review that evaluates the contributions of the INDEPTH Network of health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSSs) to research efforts on prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in low-and middle-income countries. Methods: Publication titles were sent to INDEPTH by member centres. These were uploaded onto the Zotero research tool from different databases (most from PubMed). We searched for publications using the keyword "HIV" and the publication date. The 540 relevant papers were all published in peer-reviewed English language journals between 1999 and 2012. For a paper to be included in this study it must have extensively tackled the issue of HIV (1), prevention (2) and challenges associated with the treatment. After a thorough review, 89 papers were finally selected. Results: Consistent condom use has been found to be highly protective against HIV infection. Although women feel at risk of contracting HIV from their partners and many women knew about condoms, they were unable to use them due to the partner's refusal. Infection with STDs is associated with HIV infection, populations with high rates of STDs and high-risk sexual behaviour, interventions to treat STDs can help prevent HIV transmission. The study also found that mother-to-child transmission was 2.7 times higher in infants breastfed for more than six months than in those breastfed for less than six months. The study found that the most promising prevention intervention discovered so far is male circumcision. Conclusion: INDEPTH member centres have tracked the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. They have analysed how the virus is transmitted and how it impacts families, communities and economies. Prevention and treatment policies and technologies have also come under scrutiny, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, male circumcision, behaviour change polices, antiretroviral treatment and other key interventions. The robust and extensive data HDSSs have generated provide critical insights to policy-makers as the epidemic moves into its fourth decade.

Hyaluronic acid-based carbon dots for efficient gene delivery and cell imaging

“…Many diseases such as cancers, cystic brosis, AIDS, and cardiovascular ailments have become serious threats to people's health. [1][2][3] Although traditional therapeutics such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery have been developed to treat these diseases with some success, their cure at the level of their origin and prevention of relapses remain complex problems. 4 As a new, powerful approach for the treatment of these severe diseases, gene therapy has attracted signicant attention.…”

3D-QSAR studies on 5-hydroxy-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-4- carboxamide derivatives as HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

“…The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a viral infectious disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [1,2]. First case of AIDS was reported in the United States of America in 1981 [3,4] and since then, spread of this virus in all countries is reported.…”

“…The major problem faced by antiretroviral drugs is emergence of drug resistant HIV strain and hence drug combination therapy, termed as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), was introduced [6]. The adverse side effects and pill burden are associated with reverse transcriptase and protease Abbreviations: 3D-QSAR, three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship; CoMFA, comparative molecular field analysis; CoMSIA, comparative molecular similarity index analysis; HIV-1, human immunodeficiency virus-1; PLS, partial least squares; LOO, leave-one-out; ONS, optimum number of components; rncv 2 , noncross validation coefficient; rcv 2 inhibitors [7,8]. HIV integrase enzyme is found to be potential target for antiretroviral therapy [9,10].…”

Hydroxyl-containing non-viral lipidic gene vectors with macrocyclic polyamine headgroups

“…[1][2][3] The use of gene therapy to treat these diseases has gained considerable interest compared to traditional therapeutics. However, there are still many untreatable diseases, including inherited and acquired disorders, such as cancer, AIDS and Parkinson's syndrome.…”