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Understanding the Link Between HIV and Brain Health

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

People with HIV, even those on effective treatment, are more vulnerable to cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), especially as they age. This disorder can cause strokes, memory problems, and other cognitive difficulties. New research supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and led by University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) neurologist Giovanni Schifitto, MD, and cardiovascular biologist Jinjiang Pang, MD, PhD, will focus on Delta-like 4 protein (DII4) hypothesized to play a key role in the deterioration of the microscopic network of blood vessels that serve the brain.

New Discovery Enables Gene Therapy for Muscular Dystrophies, Other Disorders

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Gene therapy can effectively treat various diseases, but for some debilitating conditions like muscular dystrophies there is a big problem: size. A new technology, dubbed “StitchR,” surmounts this obstacle by delivering two halves of a gene separately; once in a cell, both DNA segments generate messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that join seamlessly together to restore expression of a protein that is missing or inactive in disease.