Current HIV Research - Volume 15, Issue 4, 2017

Background: The chemokine receptor CCR5 acts as a co-receptor for HIV binding and it is considered as an important target by CCR5 antagonists. Entry inhibitor based microbicides gain much importance nowadays as these drugs act at an early stage of HIV lifecycle and thus hinder the viral replication process in humans. The present study intends to identify a CCR5 antagonist which could be developed as a microbicide using Read More

Background: Host restriction factors are cellular proteins able to diminish or block viral replication in a cell-specific way. Objective and Method: We evaluated the distribution of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in APOBEC3G (rs3736685, rs2294367) and CUL5 (rs7117111, rs7103534, rs11212495) genes, among 264 HIV-1 infected (HIV-1+) and 259 unexposed- uninfected individuals from Northeast Brazil, looking for a Read More

Background: Lymphoproliferative disorders are frequently diagnosed in HIV-positive patients and severe infections may occur during antineoplastic treatments: the incidence and impact of such events are not well-characterized. Objective: To describe the occurrence and mortality of incident infections in HIV-positive individuals treated for lymphoproliferative disorders. Methods: A retrospective study in HIV-positive adults with l Read More

Background: Genetic variations in Human leukocyte antigen C (HLA-C), Zinc ribbon domain containing 1 (ZNRD1) and its antisense RNA (ZNRD1-AS1) genes are known to influence the HIV-1 replication and disease progression. Objective and Method: We evaluated the distribution of HLA-C (rs10484554, rs9264942) and ZNRD1 (rs8321) and ZNRD1-AS1 (rs3869068), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 266 HIV-1-infect Read More

Background: HIV-infected homosexual men are more frequently diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma. With the increase of HIV-infected homosexual men in China, we urgently need to know the KS-related human herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8) seroprevalence in this population. To investigate HHV-8 prevalence among HIV-positive homosexual men, we recruited 183 patients naive of antiretroviral therapy (ART) whose blood samples p Read More

Background: Cytokines have been widely demonstrated to involve in the pathogenesis of AIDS and the mechanisms of antiretroviral therapy. Interleukin 27 (IL-27) is a new member of the IL-12 cytokine family and has been shown to interfere HIV-1 virus replication with controversial findings. This study is to investigate the dynamic changes in plasma IL-27 level and cell surface IL-27 receptor expression in HIV/AIDS pa Read More

Background: Phagocytosis is regarded to be impaired in HIV-1 infected adults, leading to high frequency and severity of several infections in this population. Data is contradictory with regards to individual facets in HIV infection. Objective: Aim of this study was to assess the phagocytic activity during the natural course of HIV infection. Method: It is a longitudinal study assessing natural course and impairment of neutrophil and Read More

Background: Human milk banking has been promoted to provide donated breast milk for at-risk children whose mothers cannot breastfeed them but this effort was hindered by the advent of HIV epidemic. Objective: To estimate the seroprevalence of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B in the blood of human milk donors registered in a major maternity hospital in the northern region of the Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Methods: A retros Read More

Background: First line antiretroviral therapy in a resource-limited setting consists of nucleotide and non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Protease inhibitors are the hub of second line therapy. The decision to change antiretroviral therapy for a patient is frequently presumptive because of the lack of genotypic resistance tests in routine follow-up. We describe here the resistance profiles observed in patients with varying t Read More