Inflammatory Marker Linked to Raised Risk of Death Certain “markers” of inflammation in the body are linked to an earlier death among ong people with HIV, including those coinfected with hepatitis C. This possibly helps ps explain the reason why, even when treated for the virus, particular HIV-positive people die before others. Researchers followed 400 HIV-positive alcohol abusers, half of whom also o had hep C, for three to five years between 2001 and 2009. The participants were tested ested for seven pro-inflammatory cytokines, also known as s markers, at the beginning of the study and then tracked acked to see if they died. (The study results are relevant to non-abusers as well.) Cytokines are proteins that alert white blood cells to flock to a zone of inflammation. In the short term, this process is good for the body—it’s how fungal or bacterial infections are cleared, for example. But in the long-term it can be harmful. The researchers found that higher indicators of inflammation were strongly linked to an Interleukin-6 increased risk of death, a connection that persisted regardless of whether or not an individual was taking ARVs. The inflammatory marker known as interleuken-6 (IL-6) had the most significant connection to mortality. Study author Judith Tsui, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, says, “I was actually surprised that IL-6 was so strongly associated with death, even 10 years later, after such a long follow-up period, which I think speaks to the fact that it is an important marker of inflammation.”
(INTERLEUKIN-6) RAMIN HERATI; (FLAG AND MARIJUANA) THINKSTOCK
BIG PHARMA PLOTTED TO PROP UP SOUTH AFRICAN DRUG PATENTS A leaked email shows that the Innovative Pharmaceuticals Association of South Africa (IPASA) colluded with the U.S.-based pharmaceutical industry lobbying group PhRMA in an apparently successful plot to derail reforms to South Africa’s liberal patent laws. HIV advocates have sought these legal changes for years in hopes of bringing down costs for, and thus likely improving access to, antiretrovirals (ARV) for HIV in that hard-hit nation. IPASA reps ARV-producing companies such as Merck, Sanofi, Pfizer, Roche and Novartis. An email sent by Michael Azrak, the managing director of Merck Southern and East Africa and the head of IPASA’s intellectual property committee, indicated that IPASA, in consultation
with PhRMA, engaged consultancy group Public Affairs Engagement to influence the intellectual property reform process in South Africa. All this was in contrast to IPASA’s previous denials. Despite a media firestorm—which landed the affair with the moniker “Pharmagate”— the South African cabinet still did not bring the reform package to a vote before the May 7 national elections, leaving it in limbo for the near future. “We’re concerned the plots may have worked, that the government may have bowed to pressure,” says Lotti Rutter, a senior researcher at the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. IPASA’s actions, Rutter says, represent “just a shocking disregard for human life in South Africa.”
HALF-BAKED HEADLINES CLAIM THAT POT STOPS HIV Research showed that an ingredient in pot alters the disease progression of HIV’s simian cousin, SIV, in the guts of monkeys—findings that led to a rash of hyperbolic and highly inaccurate reporting in the popular press. Louisiana State University scientists gave twice-daily injections of THC, the main psychoactive element of marijuana, to four rhesus macaque monkeys while giving a placebo to four others over the course of 17 months. Then they infected the monkeys with SIV. Five months later, the gut tissue of the THC-treated monkeys had a higher level of CD8 memory T cells as well as a specific kind of CD4 cells that scientists believe are summoned to restore CD4s killed by the virus. There was also evidence of lowered inflammation in the gut. The study’s lead author, Patricia Molina, MD, PhD, a professor at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, says that the findings identify how THC may affect certain mechanisms in the body and in turn alter the course of SIV disease—a cautiously limited, but nonetheless intriguingly promising conclusion at this stage in the game. In their colorful interpretation of the study, outlets such as ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, Queerty, High Times and others outdid themselves by erroneously reporting that, as the Daily Beast put it, “Weed Could Block H.I.V.’s Spread. No, Seriously.” The Guardian Liberty Voice was the most creatively off base, touting, “HIV Infections Cured With Cannabis a Real Possibility.” In an email to POZ, Molina expressed her “frustration with the liberal, inaccurate and wrong approach that the journalists have taken to interpreting our results.”
poz.com JUNE 2014 POZ 25