BACKGROUND Opioids may have effects on susceptibility to HIV-infection, viral replication and disease progression. Injecting drug users (IDU), as well as anyone receiving opioids for anesthesia and analgesia may suffer the clinical consequences of such interactions. There is conflicting data between in vitro experiments showing an enhancing effect of opioids on HIV replication and clinical data...

Reactivation of organophosphate (OP)-inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by oximes is the primary reason for their effectiveness in the treatment of OP poisoning. Reactivation is reported to accelerate by quaternary ligands such as decamethonium, which is devoid of nucleophilicity. The mechanism of this enhancement is not known. To better understand the acceleration phenomenon, we examined li...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes are considered pivotal to prevent lymphoproliferative disease (LPD) in allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) recipients. We evaluated the recovery of EBV-specific CD8+ T cells after partially T-cell-depleted SCT and studied the interaction between EBV-specific CD8+ T cells, EBV reactivation, and EBV-LPD. EBV-specific CD8+ T cells we...

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)-specific CD8+ T cells and the cytokine gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) are persistently present in trigeminal ganglia (TG) harboring latent HSV-1. We define "latency" as the retention of functional viral genomes in sensory neurons without the production of infectious virions and "reactivation" as a multistep process leading from latency to virion assembly. CD8+ ...

The factors involved in the reactivation of chronic Chagas disease infection are not clear enough and may be related to host immune unbalance and/or parasite genetic diversity. To evaluate the role of the Trypanosoma cruzi genetic background in the Chagas disease reactivation, we inoculated Cyclophosphamide-immunosupressed (CyI) Swiss mice with clonal stocks from T. cruzi I (Cuica cl1, P209 cl1...

We have previously shown that cytomegalovirus (CMV) can reactivate in lungs of nonimmunosuppressed patients during critical illness. Our recent work has shown that polymicrobial bacterial sepsis can trigger reactivation of latent murine CMV (MCMV). We hypothesize that MCMV reactivation following bacterial sepsis may be caused by inflammatory mediators. To test this hypothesis, BALB/c mice laten...

The reactivation of nerve agent-inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by oxime is the most important step in the treatment of nerve agent poisoning. Since the evaluation of nerve agent antidotes cannot be conducted in humans, results from animal experiments are extrapolated to humans. Guinea pig is one of the animal models that is frequently used for conducting nerve agent antidote evaluations....

In this study we used a herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) deletion mutant to identify a segment of the genome necessary for epinephrine-induced reactivation in the rabbit eye model of herpetic recurrent disease. In HSV-1 latently infected neural tissue, the only abundant viral products are the latency-associated transcripts (LATs). At least one promoter of LAT has been identified, and mutatio...

INTRODUCTION Natalizumab (NTZ) discontinuation can be followed by multiple sclerosis (MS) disease reactivation. Currently no disease-modifying drug (DMD) has been shown to be able to abolish disease reactivation. The aims of the current study were: (1) to determine the frequency of MS reactivation after NTZ discontinuation; (2) to evaluate predictors of reactivation risk, and (3) to compare the...

Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease that results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism, and the reactivation of persisting Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in B lymphocytes induces the differentiation of host B cells into plasma cells. We previously reported that some EBV-infected B cells had thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAbs) as surface immunoglobulins (Igs), and EBV reactivatio...