Discordance in HIV-1 viral loads and antiretroviral drug concentrations comparing semen and blood plasma

Objectives

For individuals not on antiretroviral therapy, the risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV appears negligible when blood plasma (BP) viral loads are <1500 HIV‐1 RNA copies/mL. It is not clear whether this observation can be extrapolated to individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Because of differential tissue penetration, antiretroviral drug concentrations may be sufficient to maintain an undetectable viral load in the BP yet not achieve adequate levels to suppress HIV in the genital tract. Therefore, we wanted to correlate HIV viral loads and drug concentrations in semen plasma (SP) and BP.

Methods

Thirty‐three men were included. All were on combination antiretroviral therapy with an undetectable BP viral load for at least 1 year. Blood and semen samples were collected within 2 h of each other and tested for HIV RNA by the NucliSens QT (bioMerieux, St Laurent, QC, Canada) method; drug concentrations were determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Results

Two of the 33 patients (6.1%) with BP viral loads below detection had time‐matched HIV viral loads in SP ≥700 copies/mL. Both patients were on efavirenz, the SP concentrations of which were ≤10% of the levels in BP and well below the minimal therapeutic drug monitoring target concentration required to suppress HIV.

Conclusions

Because, at least in part, of poor drug penetration into the genital tract, an undetectable HIV viral load in the BP does not guarantee an undetectable viral load in semen. In view of this, caution should be taken in concluding that patients on HAART with suppressed viraemia are sexually non‐infectious.     

Micro-RNAs在肝纤维化发生中的作用

1993年Lee et al在秀丽新小杆线虫中发现编码形成可抑制LIN-14蛋白合成,大小为22 nt的小分子RNA基因lin-4,当时并未引起注意.直到2000年,Reinhart et al又在此线虫中发现第二种类似的基因let-7,此后不到一年间又相继发现了数百种类似的小分子RNA,被称为micro-RNAs(miRNAs).近年来,miRNAs的研究突飞猛进.miRNAs与肿瘤发生发展的关系及其潜在的诊断价值是目前研究的热点之一,且在非肿瘤疾病中,miRNAs的研究方兴未艾.现将与肝纤维化发生有关的miRNAs研究作一简介.     

广西边远少数民族学生体型及体质量指数3年追踪**

背景: 前期研究表明广西18~22岁少数民族学生体质量偏轻。 目的：拟进一步了解广西2645名少数民族学生体型及体质健康状况，寻找影响的关联因子。 设计、时间及地点：追踪调查，于2004-12/2007-12在广西民族大学完成。 对象：广西民族大学2003/2005三次体质健康测试的全体学生2 645人。男1 337人，女1308人，年龄为18~20岁，共15个民族。 方法：根据2003年教育部、体育总局《学生体质健康标准（试行方案）》和实施方法分为形态指标、技能指标和身体素质指标3大类。对2 645名少数民族身体机能与体质量指数变化的跟踪调查。 主要观察指标：身高、体质量、肺活量、立定跳远、坐位体前屈、体质量指数。 结果：①广西民族大学2003级学生大学3年期间男生身高、体质量增长率比全国同期多2.45%，身体形态发育正处于高峰期，女生成偏瘦型体型，身体形态发育情况总体欠佳。②男女学生在刚入校时肺活量机能较差，远远低于同期全国平均水平。3年后男生肺活量增长率为11.55%、女生肺活量增长率为27.72%，分别高于全国同期肺活量增长率。③坐位体前屈机能高于同期全国平均水平，男生呈逐年上升趋势，同期全国男性呈下降趋势；同期全国乡村女生均呈逐年上升趋势。④立定跳远机能提高较大，3年后增长率为18.15%，明显高于全国同期立定跳远增长率水平的2.61%。女生立定跳远机能总体不如全国同期水平。⑤体质量指数总体与同期全国乡村男女学生体质量指数比较稍低一些(P < 0.01)。 结论：2 645名少数民族学生发育正处于高峰期；肺活量机能不及全国同期平均水平。男女体质量指数分布有所不同，体质量偏轻者女生多于男生，表明学生营养状况总体欠佳。     

Lipid extract from completely sporoderm‐broken germinating Ganoderma sinensis spores elicits potent antitumor immune responses in human macrophages

Ganoderma sinensis has been used widely in Oriental countries for the prevention and treatment of various diseases including cancer. Previous studies have shown that the lipid extract from Ganoderma exhibits direct cytotoxicity against tumor cells. Here, it is reported that the lipid extract from germinating G. sinensis spores, at lower concentrations that have no direct tumoricidal activity, induce potent antitumor immune responses in human monocytes/macrophages. Upon stimulation with the lipid extract, monocytes/macrophages exhibited markedly increased production of proinflammatory cytokines and surface expression of costimulatory molecules. Conditioned medium from stimulated cells effectively suppressed the growth of tumor cells. Apparently, the lipid extract triggered macrophage activation via a mechanism different from that associated with LPS. Moreover, it was observed that the lipid extract could partially re‐establish the antitumor activity of the immunosuppressive tumor‐associated macrophages. These results indicated that in addition to its direct tumoricidal activity, the lipid extract from G. sinensis spores could exert antitumor activity by stimulating the activation of human monocytes/macrophages. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

消脂通络饮治疗脂肪肝50例

脂肪肝随疾病的发展阶段分为单纯性脂肪肝、脂肪性肝炎、脂肪性肝纤维化和肝硬化，门诊以脂肪性肝炎居多。根据辨证以肝郁脾虚，痰瘀交阻证居多。笔者应用自拟消脂通络饮治疗此型脂肪肝，疗效较好，现报道如下。一般资料50例脂肪肝患者皆为门诊病人，男36例，女14例；年龄20～65岁，平均41岁；肥胖体型46例，有饮酒史35例，喜食肥甘厚味者40例，高血压28例，肝功能异常42例，血脂升高39例。同时设对照组40例，     

Changes in T .lymphocyte subsets after severe traumatic brain inJury

BACKGROUND： Besides local changes of cranial parenchymal cells, hemorrhage, etc., severe traumatic brain injuries also cause the changes of total body fluid and various functions, and the changes of lymphocytes and T lymphocyte subsets should be paid more attention to. OBJECTIVE： To reveal the changing laws of T lymphocyte subsets after severe traumatic brain injury, and compare with mild to moderate brain injury. DESIGN： A comparative observation. SETTINGS： Department of Neurosurgery, Longgang District Buji People＇s Hospital of Shenzhen City; Central Laboratory of Shenzhen Hospital of Prevention and Cure for Chronic Disease. PARTICIPANTS： All the subjects were selected from the Department of Neurosurgery, Longgang District Buji People＇s Hospital of Shenzhen City from August 2002 to August 2005. Thirty patients with severe brain injury, whose Glasgow coma score （GCS） was ≤ 8 points, were taken as the experimental group, including 21 males and 9 females, aging 16 - 62 years. Meanwhile, 30 patients with mild traumatic brain injury were taken as the control group （GCS ranged 14- 15 points）, including 18 males and 12 females, aging 15 -58 years. All the subjects were in admission at 6 hours after injury, without disease of major organs before injury Informed consents were obtained from all the patients or their relatives. METHODS： （1） The T lymphocytes and the subsets in peripheral blood were detected with immunofluorescent tricolor flow cytometry at l, 3, 7 and 14 days after injury in both groups. （2） The conditions of pulmonary infections were observed at 4 days after injury. The differences of measurement data were compared with the t test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Changes of T lymphocytes subsets at 1 - 14 days after severe and mild or moderate traumatic injury. RESULTS： Finally, 28 and 25 patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, whereas 25 and 21 patients with severe traumatic brain injury were analyzed at 7 and 14 days respectively, and the missed ones died due to the development of disease. （1） Changes of T lymphocyte subsets： At 1 and 3 days after injury, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8 began to decrease, whereas CD8 increased in the experimental group, which were very significantly different from those in the control group （t =2.77 - 3.26, P 〈 0.01）, and began to recover at 7 days, which were significantly different from those in the control group （t = 2.06 - 2.24, P 〈 0.05）, and generally recovered to the normal levels at 14 days （P 〉 0.05）. （2） Conditions of pulmonary infections： At 4 days after injury, the rate of pulmonary infection was significantly different between the experimental group and control group [73% （22/30）, 0, x2=37.29, P 〈 0.01]. CONCLUSION： Patients with severe traumatic brain injury suffer from damages of cellular immune function at early period （within 7 days）, and they are easily to be accompanied by pulmonary infections.     

The high prognostic value of the histologic grade at the deep invasive front of tongue squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Although many histopathologic factors in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue predict the prognosis, the major predictive factors have not been identified clearly. This study analyzed the prognostic value of the histologic grade at the deep invasive front of tongue squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: The clinicopathologic features of 124 consecutive patients seen between January 1985 and December 1999 with previously untreated squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue were reviewed. Their mean age was 58.5 years (range: 23-90) and the male-female ratio was 1.8: 1 (79 men and 45 women). There were 41, 40, 30, and 13 cases at stage I to stage IV, respectively. The clinicopathologic factors, especially the histologic grade at the deep invasive front (invasive front grade, IFG), were analyzed to determine factors predicting prognosis. RESULTS: The 5-year disease-free survival rate of the patients treated with curative aim only was 66.7%. Clinicopathologic factors significantly associated with the prognosis were T classification, tumor size, stage classification, tumor depth, macroscopic appearance, cervical lymph node metastasis (nodal metastasis), microvascular invasion, and IFG. In a multivariate analysis, patients with tumor depth >/=4 mm, IFG >/=8 points, and nodal metastasis had a reduced disease-free survival and IFG >/=11 points had a predictive value for nodal metastasis (odds ratio: 7.34; P = 0.0019). CONCLUSION: This study found that a high IFG malignancy score had a high prognostic value for squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.     

大陷胸汤灌肠治疗流出急性肾衰的观察与护理

目的 探讨中药大陷胸汤高位保留灌肠对流行性出血热（EHF）急性肾衰的治疗作用。方法 将60例EHF急性肾衰患者随机分为对照组与治疗组各30例，对照组予以常规治疗，治疗组在常规治疗的基础上加用大陷胸汤高位保留灌肠，观察两组患者治疗前后的疗效。结果 治疗组治愈23例，好转6例，无效1例，总有效率96．7％；对照组治愈17例，好转7例，无效6例，总有效率80．0％；两组疗效比较，有显著差异性p〈0．05（x^2=4．630）。结论 大陷胸汤高位保留灌肠治疗EHF急性肾衰疗效显著，且简便、安全、经济、病人乐于接受等优点。