This article is the second in a two-part series and will discuss the results of scientific studies examining medical marijuana use in people with HIV. Part 1 explored the current legal environment for medical marijuana.

Research has mostly shown that using medical marijuana helps ease common symptoms and side effects in people with HIV. However, there are also potentially serious risks, some of which are specific to people who are HIV positive.

Studies have estimated that about a quarter…

This article is the first in a two-part series and will explore the current legal environment for medical marijuana. Part 2 will discuss the results of scientific studies examining medical marijuana use in people with HIV.

Legal support for the use of medical marijuana, including by people with HIV/AIDS, has been growing nationwide. Laws are not uniform and have often been the source of contentious debate; however, an increasing number of states have passed or are considering laws to legalize the drug…

With results that admittedly surprised investigators, a team of researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) announced that lab tests have shown that morphine, a strong pain-killer that can be used to make heroin, protects against HIV brain toxicity in rats.

“We started with the opposite hypothesis – that heroin was going to destroy neurons in the brain and lead to HIV dementia,” admitted Italo Mocchetti, a professor of neuroscience at GUMC, in a press release.

Instead, they found that…

Gilead Sciences reported last week that it has settled on a formulation for a therapy that combines Johnson & Johnson’s new TMC278 (rilpivirine hydrochloride) and its own drug Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir) into a single pill.

In a press release, Gilead said it planned to file a New Drug Application (NDA) for the combined therapy once TMC278’s is approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Johnson & Johnson, which owns Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, the maker of TMC278, announced recently that…

Long touted as a potentially powerful weapon against HIV, stem cell therapy may be moving one step closer to reality. Researchers may soon begin using stem cell therapy in clinical trials for patients not responding to antiretroviral drugs (see related AIDS Beacon news).

At the Society for General Microbiology’s spring meeting in Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam Professor Ben Berkhout spoke of his investigations into the novel therapy.

Meant for individuals no longer responding to the traditional regimen of antivirals,…