Search results for "HIV infection"

An adaptive multimeme algorithm for designing HIV multidrug therapies.

2007

This paper proposes a period representation for modeling the multidrug HIV therapies and an Adaptive Multimeme Algorithm (AMmA) for designing the optimal therapy. The period representation offers benefits in terms of flexibility and reduction in dimensionality compared to the binary representation. The AMmA is a memetic algorithm which employs a list of three local searchers adaptively activated by an evolutionary framework. These local searchers, having different features according to the exploration logic and the pivot rule, have the role of exploring the decision space from different and complementary perspectives and, thus, assisting the standard evolutionary operators in the optimizati…

Poly-functional immune response in HIV infection: a correlation between immunological and clinical status

2015

Aim: We analysed patient immunological status and serum cytokine profile to establish immune-activation state and afterwards the obtained data were correlated to viral activity and ARV therapy. Materials and Methods: 50 HIV-1 mono-infected patients (pt) were recruited: 5 naïve, 5 virologic controllers, 10 virologic non controllers (ARV drug-untreated pt with HIV viremia above 10,000 copies/ml), 20 virologic responders (ARV drug-treated pt with undetectable HIV viremia) and 10 virologic non responders patients (ARV drug-treated pt with HIV viremia ≥ 400 copies/ml). IFN- production and plasmatic cytokine pattern levels (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, TNF-β, IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, IP-10, IL-8, MIP-1 α, MIP-…

Phosphatidylserine liposomes reduce inflammatory response, mycobacterial viability and HIV replication in coinfected human macrophages

2021

AbstractChronic immune activation is the key pathogenetic event of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection. We assessed the therapeutic value of phosphatidylserine-liposome (PS-L) in an in vitro model of M. tuberculosis-HIV coinfection. PS-L reduced nuclear factor-κB activation and the downstream production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and IL-6 in bacille Calmette-Guérin-infected macrophages and of TNF-α and IL-1β in M. tuberculosis-infected and M. tuberculosis-HIV–coinfected macrophages. Importantly, a significant reduction of intracellular M. tuberculosis viability and HIV replication were also observed. These results suppor…

Carbohydrate assimilation profiles of the first Italian Candida dubliniensis clinical isolates recovered from an HIV-infected individual.

2001

A total of six Candida dubliniensis isolates were obtained during 1 year of monitoring by monthly swabs from the oral cavity of an asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus-infected individual in Catania, Italy. To the authors' knowledge, this constitutes the first recovery of C. dubliniensis from a human in Italy. Our identification procedure was based on colony color on CHROMagar Candida and carbohydrate assimilation profiles obtained by two commercial systems: API ID 32C and API 20C AUX. Karyotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis confirmed the phenotypic identification. The biocodes obtained with API 20C AUX and with API ID 32C were 6172134 and 7142140015, respectively, for all six …

Vitamin D Deficiency in HIV Infection: Not Only a Bone Disorder

2015

Hypovitaminosis D is a worldwide disorder, with a high prevalence in the general population of both Western and developing countries. In HIV patients, several studies have linked vitamin D status with bone disease, neurocognitive impairment, depression, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, infections, autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes mellitus, and cancer. In this review, we focus on the most recent epidemiological and experimental data dealing with the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and HIV infection. We analysed the extent of the problem, pathogenic mechanisms, clinical implications, and potential benefits of vitamin …

Occult Hepatitis B Infection (OBI)in HIV-Infected Patients in Palermo: Preliminary data

2011

Content analysis of Spanish judgements addressing the sexual transmission of HIV: 1996-2016.

2018

This study performed a content analysis of the language of the Spanish judgements addressing the sexual transmission of HIV in order to determine its possible interrelationship with HIV-related stigma. All judgements and writs dictated by Spanish penal and civil jurisdictions between 1981 and December 2016 were obtained through a systematic search of the Spanish legal databases. The inclusion criterion was that the possible transmission of HIV was judged as an individual infraction, regardless of whether other infractions were involved. Twenty judgements were selected and analysed through direct content analysis assisted by the software MAXQDA 12. The majority of the cases (85%) were brough…

Antibodies to human herpes virus type 8 (HHV8) in general population and in individuals at risk for sexually transmitted diseases in Western Sicily.

2000

Human herpes virus 8 (HHV8) appears to be the primary aetiologic agent of Kaposi sarcoma (KS). To study the distribution of HHV8, a seroepidemiological study was carried out in western Sicily, where a high incidence rate of classical KS is well documented.A total of 970 sera of healthy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative individuals of general population (1-70 years old) and 742 sera of individuals in different risk groups for HIV infection were evaluated by means of an indirect immunofluorescence assay able to detect antibodies to lytic and latent HHV8 antigens.Crude seroprevalence to HHV8 antigens was 11.5% in the general population, and it increased significantly with age from 6%…

A novel antiviral approach.

2012

Viral infections are often the etiological agents of severe acute and chronic human diseases. Their peculiar biology usually leads to the need of design specific therapies for each virus, and the eradication of the viruses and the healing of the patients very often are not reached also after decades of theoretical and applied researches. HIV is a classical example of how the efforts of the researchers may be disappointed in eradicating a virus infection in an infected patient. Here I present a hypothesis for a new antiviral approach that may be suitable for the treatment of HIV infected patients. The same approach, with opportune modifications, may be also applied as healing strategy for a …

HIV-1 Adaptation to Antigen Processing Results in Population-Level Immune Evasion and Affects Subtype Diversification

2014

Summary The recent HIV-1 vaccine failures highlight the need to better understand virus-host interactions. One key question is why CD8+ T cell responses to two HIV-Gag regions are uniquely associated with delayed disease progression only in patients expressing a few rare HLA class I variants when these regions encode epitopes presented by ∼30 more common HLA variants. By combining epitope processing and computational analyses of the two HIV subtypes responsible for ∼60% of worldwide infections, we identified a hitherto unrecognized adaptation to the antigen-processing machinery through substitutions at subtype-specific motifs. Multiple HLA variants presenting epitopes situated next to a giv…