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Report Looks At HIV Prevalence Among Chicago Gay Men
In Chicago, 17.4 percent of gay men are estimated to be HIV-positive, compared with 1.2 percent of the general male population, according to a new report by the Chicago Public Health Department, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The report is based on data collected from 570 Chicago men through the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system, and found that half of the men with HIV were unaware they were infected (Thomas, 7/25). "Health officials said Friday, information in the report on HIV infection mark the first time Chicago health officials have used blood-testing to determine infection rates among men," the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. In the past, estimates have relied on interviews with gay and bisexual men, according to Christopher Brown, the Public Health Department assistant commissioner. The report also found that "black men who have sex with other men have double the HIV infection rates of white and Hispanic men," the AP/Tribune reports (7/24).
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HHS Purchases Additional H1N1 Vaccine Ingredients
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that the department will commit $884 million to purchase additional supplies of two key ingredients for potential H1N1 vaccine to further prepare the nation for a potential resurgence of the 2009 H1N1 virus.
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Clinipace To Manage Two Phase II Clinical Trials For Inspire Pharmaceuticals
Clinipace, a digital clinical research organization, announced that Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has selected the company to manage and deploy two phase II studies for the ophthalmic prescription medicine, AzaSite®.
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'Death Receptors' Designed To Kill Our Cells May Make Them Stronger

It turns out that from the perspective of cell biology, Nietzsche may have been right after all: that which does not kill us does make us stronger. In a review article published in the June 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists from the Mayo Clinic explain how cell receptors (called "death receptors") used by the body to shut down old, diseased, or otherwise unwanted cells (called "apoptosis") may also be used to make cells heartier when facing a wide range of illnesses, from liver disease to cancer. "Increasing our knowledge of how death receptors function will allow us to develop better and more effective therapies for several human diseases," said Gregory J. Gores, M.D., Chair of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and one of the scientists involved in the work. In their article, Gores and his colleague, Maria Guicciardi, also from the Mayo Clinic, described the various molecular pathways activated by death receptors and the proteins involved in the process. Specifically, they looked at how these proteins interact with each other and how they redistribute within a cell. Death receptors are an essential tool for the immune system to eliminate cells that have been overtaken by viruses, undergone potentially harmful genetic modifications, or have become too old to function properly. Understanding the exact sequence of events that occurs after death receptors are activated, including identifying key proteins involved in the processes, may allow researchers to develop entirely new therapeutics. These therapeutics not only would give doctors the ability to choose when and if certain cells are taken out of service, but they would also give doctors the ability to trigger cells to shift into "survival mode." "As far as names are concerned, nothing in biology sounds more intimidating than "death receptors,"" said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Fortunately for us, when scientists look at the intricate machinery of how cells die, they dig up clues to longer, healthier lives." Details: Maria Eugenia Guicciardi and Gregory J. Gores. Life and death by death receptors. FASEB J. 2009 23: 1625-1637. http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/6/1625 Cody Mooneyhan Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology


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