http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. It's established dogma that the immune system develops a "memory" of a microbial pathogen, with a correspondingly enhanced readiness to combat that microbe, only upon exposure to it—or to its components though a vaccine. But a discovery by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers casts doubt on that dogma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-immune-healthy-adults-germs-theyve.html Immunology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:00:23 EST news279447305 A new clinical study published in BioMedCentral's open access journal Arthritis Research and Therapy provides preliminary evidence that vitamin D supplementation could be considered an immunomodulatory agent for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a debilitating autoimmune disease characterized not only by skin, joint, neurological and renal symptoms, but also by inflammation of tissue linings in the body. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-vitamin-d-supplements-benefit-lupus.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:00:01 EST news269626017 A new study published online in the journal Nature suggests it might be possible to develop vaccines to prevent premature birth and other pregnancy complications. If so, such vaccines would be the first intended to stimulate the subset of regulatory CD4 T cells that suppress the immune response. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-pregnancy-maternal-immune-suppressive-cells-fetus.html Immunology Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:00:14 EST news267876734 South African and South Korean researchers are working on making a smartphone capable of doing AIDS tests in rural parts of Africa that are the worst hit by the disease, a researcher said Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cellphones-aids-safrica-skorea.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:34:59 EST news265638891 (AP) —Brazil's anti-AIDS program will be expanded to include at least 35,000 more people, a Health Ministry official said Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-brazil-anti-aids.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:52:05 EST news265477919 One of the key decisions faced by people living with HIV, and by their health-care providers, is when to start treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-guidance-antiretroviral-therapy-hiv.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:00:07 EST news236267486 Protease inhibitor drugs are one of the major weapons in the fight against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but their effectiveness is limited as the virus mutates and develops resistance to the drugs over time. Now a new tool has been developed to help predict the location of the mutations that lead to drug resistance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-drug-tool-reveals-mutations-hiv-drug.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:10:13 EST news229352991 Using a technique that silences genes promoting infection, researchers have developed a novel, topically-applied molecular microbicide capable of preventing HIV transmission. The microbicide is predicted to have long-lasting effects in mice, opening the door to developing an intravaginal microbicide that could protect women against HIV infection potentially for weeks at a time and bolster public health efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-aptamer-approach-hiv-transmission.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 16 May 2011 12:38:44 EST news224768311