Animal retroviral infections suggest third kind of potential treatment: HIV harm reduction

Besides antivirals and immune-based treatments, a third approach is to reduce the harm caused indirectly by HIV, which is probably more important than the direct killing of infected cells. Some animals do not get sick when infected with HIV-like viruses despite very high viral loads--suggesting that they have successfully evolved to tolerate the virus instead of eradicating or suppressing it. Understanding how they do so might lead to a new kind of HIV treatment.     

Significant proteases of flukes--molecular characteristic and their biological functions

Proteases (peptide hydrolases) aside from known catabolic functions and protein processing play numerous roles in many tasks imposed by a parasitic life cycle; this includes parasite immunoevasion, excystment/encystment, tissue penetration and digestion of host tissue for nutrition. They have been identified in biological systems from viruses to vertebrates. Proteases are divided into four major groups on the basis of the catalytic mechanism used during the hydrolytic process - serine, aspartic, cysteine and metalloproteinases; other 'undefined' or cryptic proteases may also exist. There are a number of excellent reviews covering general parasite proteinases but by far the largest number of papers in the literature report on enzymes belonging to the papain superfamily of cysteine proteinases. It turns out, however, that although many different proteases have been characterized in parasitic helminths many of them have yet to be discovered.     

On the coefficients of the characteristic series of the U-operator

A conceptual proof is given of the fact that the coefficients of the characteristic series of the U-operator acting on families of overconvegent modular forms lie in the Iwasawa algebra.     

Detection of small numbers of cells characteristic for haematological disorders in peripheral blood (the deep diff)

We studied cytocentrifuge preparations of peripheral blood mononuclear leucocytes in haematological patients with nondiagnostic white cell differential counts. This approach (the 'deep diff') enabled the detection of small numbers of diagnostically significant cells in a majority of patients. We found ringed sideroblasts in 5/7 patients with sideroblastic anaemia and megaloblasts in 9/10 patients with megaloblastic anaemia. We observed centrocytes in seven patients with follicular lymphoma, mantle cells in five patients with mantle cell lymphoma and marginal zone cells in five patients with nodal marginal zone lymphoma. We detected small percentages of lymphoma cells in cytospins of mononuclear leucocytes in 12 patients with large B-cell lymphoma, Burkitt's lymphoma and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma. The deep diff was nondiagnostic in 5/6 patients with hairy cell leukaemia and in 9/10 patients with Waldenstr?m's macroglobulinaemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma. In these cases, there were insufficient cells to detect light chain restriction. Increased counts of leukaemic cells were found in 12/13 patients with acute leukaemia with < 3% blasts in the conventional white cell differential. Increased blasts were also observed in six patients with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts (RAEB). Decreased blasts were found in five patients with aplastic anaemia and in nine patients with bone marrow aplasia after intensive chemotherapy. Increased plasma cell counts were observed in 13/14 patients with advanced plasma cell myeloma. We conclude that the 'deep diff', augmented by immunocytochemistry, may be useful in the diagnosis of haematological disorders.     

On closed extensions of functions

G. T. Whyburn has shown that every mapping (by a mapping we will always mean a continuous function) of a topological space into a Hausdorff space is the restriction of a compact mapping with the same range (Trans. Am. Math. Soc., 74, 344-350 (1953)). H. Bauer has proved that every mapping between locally compact Hausdorff spaces can be extended in a topologically unique manner to a compact mapping on a locally compact Hausdorff space with the same range (Math. Ann., 138, 398-427 (1959)). When the range and domain of a mapping are locally compact Hausdorff spaces, Whyburn's and Bauer's extensions are topologically equivalent. It is well known that not every compact mapping is a closed mapping; however, Whyburn has shown that every closed function with compact point inverses is a compact function (these PROCEEDINGS, 54, 688-692 (1965)). The principal aim of this paper is to prove that every function (respectively, mapping) from one topological space to another can be extended in a topologically unique manner to a closed and compact function (respectively, mapping) with the same range.     

Pulmonary mucormycosis: two of a kind

Mucormycosis is an uncommon infection caused by fungi of the class Zygomycetes, suborder Mucorales. It occurs predominantly in the immunodeficient host, the most common risk factor being diabetes mellitus. Pulmonary mucormycosis is a disease that is localized in the lungs or mediastinum. It usually presents in a fulminant manner, although a chronic presentation can also occur. We describe two cases of pulmonary mucormycosis in patients with diabetes mellitus, one with an acute and the other with a chronic presentation. A high level of clinical suspicion, combined surgical and medical therapy, and control of patient's underlying immunosuppression are the key to a successful outcome.     

Solution of the coupled Einstein-Maxwell equations in oblate spheroidal coordinates

Using Ernst's theory of complex potentials, a solution of the coupled Einstein-Maxwell equations in oblate spheroidal coordinates is obtained for a source possessing mass, electric charge, and angular momentum. The density of the electromagnetic energy is evaluated. Explicit expressions are derived for the components of the Ricci tensor Rmunu, and of the electromagnetic energy momentum tensor Emunu, as well as for Enumu.