BACKGROUND To evaluate the type and frequency of antiretroviral drug stock-outs, and their impact on death and interruption in care among HIV-infected patients in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. METHODS AND FINDINGS We conducted a cohort study of patients who initiated combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in three adult HIV clinics between February 1, 2006 and June 1, 2007. Follow-up ended on Fe...

OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of first-line combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. METHODS ART-naïve women initiating cART between January 2000/June 2010 at the Instituto de Pesquisa Clínica Evandro Chagas Cohort were studied. Women were defined as postmenopausal after 12 consecutive months of amenorrhea. CD4 cell counts and HIV-1 RN...

BACKGROUND Although considered an essential tool for monitoring the effect of combination antiretroviral treatment (CART), HIV-1 RNA (viral load, VL) testing is greatly influenced by cost and availability of resources. OBJECTIVES To examine whether HIV infected patients who were initially successfully treated with CART have less frequent monitoring of VL over time and whether CART failure and...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQL) over 96 weeks in patients receiving no treatment or 24 or 60 weeks of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) during primary HIV-1 infection (PHI). METHODS A multicentre prospective cohort study of PHI patients, with an embedded randomized trial, was carried out. HRQL was assessed with the Medical Outcomes ...

Purpose: Cocaineand amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) peptide exerts several regulatory functions acting both as neurotransmitter and hormone. We recently showed that CART is expressed in various neuroendocrine tumors, including small bowel carcinoids. The main objective of the present study was to examine whether CART expression is associated with survival in patients with small bowel ca...

We identified a rat cDNA that encodes cartilage homeoprotein 1 (Cart-1). The deduced amino acid sequence of Cart-1 contains a paired-type homeodomain. Northern blot hybridization and RNase protection assay revealed that Cart-1 RNA was present at high levels in a well-differentiated rat chondrosarcoma tumor and in a cell line derived from this tumor. Cart-1 RNA was detected in primary mouse and ...

Recycling of neurotransmitters is essential for sustained neuronal signaling, yet recycling pathways for various transmitters, including histamine, remain poorly understood. In the first visual ganglion (lamina) of Drosophila, photoreceptor-released histamine is taken up into perisynaptic glia, converted to carcinine, and delivered back to the photoreceptor for histamine regeneration. Here, we ...

Levels of soluble CD14 (sCD14) were longitudinally measured in 85 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected subjects during long-term receipt of suppressive combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) and compared to those in young and elderly HIV-negative control subjects. cART did not normalize sCD14 levels; rather, the HIV-infected group displayed a significantly higher sCD14 level at baseline ...

BACKGROUND Several lines of evidence suggest that retinoids (retinol-ROL or vitamin A, and its active metabolites, retinoic acids-RAs) play important pathogenic roles in HIV infection and combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)-related events. We previously reported that antiretrovirals alter RAs synthesis in vitro. We hypothesised that in vivo serum retinoid concentrations are affected by bo...

BACKGROUND Although combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) initiated in the acute phase of HIV-1 infection may prevent expansion of the latent reservoir, its benefits remain controversial. In the current study, HIV-1 RNA transcription patterns in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were monitored during acute cART to assess the effect of early treatment on cellular viral reservoirs. ...