Dec 13, 2021 01:23 AM
35-year-old stool and blood samples reap new HIV discovery
https://www.axios.com/35-year-old-stool-...3772e.html
EXCERPTS: . . . Men who contracted HIV back in the 1980s appear to have had a different microbiome than their counterparts who remained HIV-negative, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Microbiome. “We weren’t looking at the microbiome back then, trust me. It wasn’t even in our lexicon,” said Charles Rinaldo, a co-senior author of the study and a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1983, the National Institutes of Health funded what was called the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study in four cities, including Pittsburgh, in the race to understand the then-mysterious illness.
Researchers at Pitt collected samples of blood, throat washings, urine, semen and stool every six months from a group of gay men who did not have AIDS at the start of the study. Once researchers discovered HIV was responsible for the development of AIDS, the researchers at Pitt stopped collecting the samples. But instead of throwing the samples away, the team stored them in a biorepository.
"Let me tell you, there was some pressure to throw this stuff out," Rinaldo said. "It costs a lot of money to keep these for 35 years ... I was one of the people that said 'No way.'" (MORE - missing details)
https://www.axios.com/35-year-old-stool-...3772e.html
EXCERPTS: . . . Men who contracted HIV back in the 1980s appear to have had a different microbiome than their counterparts who remained HIV-negative, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Microbiome. “We weren’t looking at the microbiome back then, trust me. It wasn’t even in our lexicon,” said Charles Rinaldo, a co-senior author of the study and a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1983, the National Institutes of Health funded what was called the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study in four cities, including Pittsburgh, in the race to understand the then-mysterious illness.
Researchers at Pitt collected samples of blood, throat washings, urine, semen and stool every six months from a group of gay men who did not have AIDS at the start of the study. Once researchers discovered HIV was responsible for the development of AIDS, the researchers at Pitt stopped collecting the samples. But instead of throwing the samples away, the team stored them in a biorepository.
"Let me tell you, there was some pressure to throw this stuff out," Rinaldo said. "It costs a lot of money to keep these for 35 years ... I was one of the people that said 'No way.'" (MORE - missing details)