 Hi everyone, Raif Derrazy here and in this video I wanted to do a little recap of some of the HIV news from the week of June 12th This is a new thing for me. I'm just trying it out So I just pulled some interesting articles that I found and then I'll do a little recap of those By the way, before I go into this, I just want to say that this is by no means an exhaustive List of all the news. There's probably so much news that I couldn't even cover in a Relatively long video, and I don't want to do a relatively long video. I want to keep this relatively concise I am one person. I cannot commit full-time to to digging into all of this And I would also hate to misrepresent News so I'll do my best to give you a little brief and then I'll include the links to each of the articles that I cover in The description box below if you want to read into it more and do your own digging as well So this first article Scientists hopeful after making HIV drug breakthrough in hunt for dementia cure So dementia is a condition where abnormal proteins build up in the brain causing brain cell death Our body normally removes these toxic proteins through a process called autophagy But in dementia, this process doesn't work properly leading to the accumulation of harmful proteins researchers at Cambridge University Have found that a repurposed HIV drug can restore autophagy in the brain Did you hear that correctly a repurposed HIV drug can restore autophagy in the brain? That's Pretty cool. I love when science medicine overlaps like that It can prevent the buildup of destructive proteins and slowing down the disease's progression The drug targets a switch called CCR 5 which is also used by HIV to enter cells Tests on mice show that the drug reduced protein levels and slowed down brain cell loss Indicating its potential to slow down memory loss in dementia While more research is needed this finding provides a promising direction for developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases Very cool Okay on to the next Contesting for drug gene interactions improve treatment success in people with HIV So the Mayo Clinic concluded in their study published in the Journal AIDS that a person's genetics may have a role to play in drug related Toxicities or in in efficacies in people with HIV So it may be cost-effective and improve the likelihood of treatment success to do a genetic screening beforehand Pharmacogenes are genes involved in eliminating toxins and drugs from the body Also known as detoxification Currently pharmacogenomic testing is routinely offered to people before their prescribed triomech and Sometimes for those before being prescribed a tripla I can personally say that had I had this kind of testing before I was put on a tripla. It would have saved me a lot of Grave because the side effects for me were crazy. They were out of this world and it was Highly toxic for my body. So it could have saved me, you know six plus months of going on a tripla and Doing all that the harm to my body and my liver Okay on to the next article So Iowa passed a law removing HIV education from required school curriculum specifically in the bill SF 496 it mentions acquired immune Deficiency syndrome so I was looking through this bill SF 496 and I did a search of HIV Nothing came up. I was like, that's weird Maybe I maybe was implicit or something and I and it doesn't actually say HIV So there's parts in the bill that talk about required Education curriculum for for example grades one through six and It has a list of things that are required for the curriculum and then crossed out it says Something about HPV and vaccination and then also acquired immune deficiency syndrome So at one point it was in there and then they lined it out and then again in grades seven and eight It has the same thing. It has a line through acquired immune deficiency syndrome I think it's weird that it's it's specifically states acquired immune deficiency syndrome But it doesn't make any mention of HIV as If like that's like, you know when people make them the mischaracterization that oh This this person got AIDS they have AIDS. What they're really saying is they have HIV It's like this lack of education. So it kind of comes across that way. I don't know if that's What that's about but I just I find it really odd that it references AIDS, but not HIV Anyway, they're crossed out in this bill so you know, my my focus is Education is always better than not educating and yeah, you can say that you can make the argument that grades one through eight is Fairly young and they're not necessarily even thinking about sex or considering sex. So There's a prevalence of HIV diagnoses in adolescents from ages 13 to 24 I believe that's around grade eight is when you would be 13 years old. So Ideally you would want that education before they actually Hit that grade that age So maybe a year before maybe two years before I don't know that it needs to be taught all the way in first grade I don't remember getting sex education in elementary school, but Definitely before you start engaging in the sex acts or before the statistics show that kids are, you know at risk My two cents more evidence that long COVID is more common in people with HIV And this was like an aha for me because I was just talking to my boyfriend Bo about the fact that the past week I've been like racking my brain because I have felt so off and so weak and Like I could feel that there was something going on with my body and I told them specifically I said it feels like I have long COVID. I don't get it I had COVID last year and I had long COVID for months after it and then I Recovered and I felt fine, but every once in a while I have these periods where I just and I and I and I wonder if it's like in my head if I'm just making it up or something but I Got a full night's sleep eight hours of sleep last night I went to the gym and I did like one set and I was just obliterated. I was so Drained and wiped out and I felt like Ake and I felt I don't know something with my nerves that like Just the sense that like if someone were to prick me with a needle my whole body would just explode That's the way I can think of describing it and this article here Just validated what I've been experiencing So a large US study has found that individuals with HIV are more likely to experience long COVID symptoms and Develop serious cardiovascular Metabolic and cancer-related disorders after contracting COVID-19 the study highlights the need to understand why people with HIV are more vulnerable to long COVID and to include them in clinical trials for potential treatments Long COVID refers to persistent symptoms that linger after an acute episode of COVID-19 such as fatigue Weakness joint and muscle pain and cognitive dysfunction various studies have shown an increased risk of long COVID symptoms in individuals with HIV Understanding and addressing the specific challenges faced by people with HIV in relation to long COVID is crucial for their effective management and Treatment so these are little summaries that I'm reading off to you It's not what the article states you want to read more. I I recommend it guys don't let this be like a Seed of fear in your brain and you start getting Worried about every little thing. This is just helpful information for you to know if you are experienced this type of thing It's real it's documented and just Consider this another tool in your toolbox to be able to arm yourself with knowledge and information So that when you have those conversation conversations with your health care providers with your doctors You can point stuff like this out and maybe they can help you Okay Next article I have two left two more articles left Research continues in curing HIV via stem cell transplant Okay So stem cell transplantation has shown promising results as a potential cure for HIV According to a study conducted by researchers at Oregon Health and Science University The study published in the journal immunity Revealed that five patients have already achieved a cure for HIV through stem cell transplants one of those five patients I had the Privilege of having an interview with he is known as the London patient His name is Adam castigale, and he was gracious enough to sit down with me and have a really great in-depth conversation You can watch that. I'll put a card up to that if you want to watch and Yeah, but the problem is with cells stem cell transplantation it's a very very high risk and It's been given to those who already had Something else cancer that they were battling and they were had limited options, you know late stage cancer Because in order to have the transplantation you have to You have to suppress your immune system. So your body doesn't reject the transplant and so you're making your body very vulnerable and There's a lot of complications low likelihood of survival. So While stem cell transplants have been very successful when the person survives It's clearly not a viable solution for the general population So what they're talking about in this article is trying to figure out a way to give someone Stem cells That have the resistance to HIV Through an injection without having to go through a highly invasive stem cell transplant Which would make it applicable to a larger population Yeah, possibly through a single injection instead of a full transplant And the final article for this week Is new york state lawmakers pass lgbtq and hiv long-term care residents bill of rights So I find I found this article interesting because now that long-term survivability of hiv living with hiv and Living a healthy long Successful life is In the view of most people who are on effective treatment Now comes the topic of Aging with hiv and what does that mean eventually eventually that means going into a long-term care facility and And worrying about getting Long-term care, you know, that's something that's a very real Concern for people as they are starting to age and living with hiv and the lgbtq plus community So lawmakers in new york state have passed a bill Establishing a bill of rights for lgbtq individuals and people living with hiv in long-term care facilities The legislation prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation gender identity or expression or hiv status And aims to protect the rights of transgender individuals in these facilities It ensures the use of correct names and pronouns Prohibits denial of admission or requests to share a room Affirms the right to use bathrooms according to general identity and bans restrictions on residents associations and consensual Consensual sexual relations the bill aims to address the discrimination faced by lgbtq elders in long-term care And promote acceptance and dignity it now awaits the signature of governor kathy hokel And that's something that i've never really thought about was The possibility that That is an issue that in long-term care Folks might be dealing with discrimination um By their caregivers you know and What a horrible time to have to deal with something like that So I like the fact that new york is codifying this into law It's a great move on their part. Anyway, so those are the news articles for this week I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know like give me your feedback in the comments as usual I want to know if i'm doing something that you're interested in Let me know if there's particular articles or certain questions you have about certain things Maybe it'll become a topic for a future video or possibly an interview and I can bring on a guest or something like that Anyways, keep up the conversation I love hearing from you and I love hearing your thoughts and you guys chatting with each other. That's great That's what we need and again I will have all the links to these articles in the description box below All right, like this video if you liked it subscribe hit that bell So you get a notification every time I have a new video And please share this with anyone who you might think might find it valuable until next time. Cheers