Acceptability of a Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate Vaginal Ring for HIV Prevention Among Women in New York City

Vaginal rings for pre-exposure prophylaxis are a female-initiated HIV prevention method that does not require daily or coitally-dependent dosing. As part of a randomized placebo-controlled trial of a tenofovir disoproxil fumarate intravaginal ring, we assessed product acceptability through in-depth interviews with 18 women during and after 14 days of continuous use. Women reported that the ring was comfortable with few side effects, regardless of experimental arm. However, interest in future use by this cohort was modest for several reasons including: low self-perceived HIV risk; concern that use implied promiscuity; potential for interference with relationship formation and trust; concern for interference with menstruation and cleanliness; and worries about partners’ acceptability and sexual pleasure. Potential issues were raised with duration of use prior to ring exchange. Future studies should continue to identify and address individual and relationship factors that influence acceptability, early in the product development process.     

Pre-B cells and other possible precursor lymphoid cell lines derived from patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia

A group of unique Epstein-Barr virus-containing cell lines was derived from the bone marrow of three patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia. Efforts to obtain cell lines from the peripheral blood of these patients were uniformly unsuccessful. Immunofluorescence analyses as well as biosynthetic studies with [(35)S]methionine indicated unusual patterns of Ig synthesis in many of these bone marrow derived lines. Seven of the lines were of particular interest in that two produced no Ig of any type; two others showed no Ig by fluorescence but small amounts by [(35)S]methionine labeling; one expressed only cytoplasmic μ chains without any evidence of light chain synthesis, and two produced primarily μ chains with only slight amounts of light chains. One of the lines without membrane or cytoplasmic Ig studied in detail grew like a typical lymphoid line and was carried in intermittent culture over a period of 2 yr without Ig expression. One line grew quite differently and resembled the round cell type described previously, which has been obtained from a variety of sources. The cell line with cytoplasmic μ chains and no light-chain expression had the characteristic properties of pre-B cells. Three normal type Ig-producing cell lines also were obtained from the patients. The accumulated evidence obtained in the present study indicates that these unusual cell lines represent normal precursor cells of the B-cell lineage; these grew out in these cases because of the virtual absence of mature B cells that ordinarily overgrow the culture system. However, the possibility that in certain instances they reflect abnormal Ig synthesis characteristic of the disease has not been ruled out.     

Large picture archiving and communication systems of the world—Part 2

A survey of 82 institutions worldwide was done in 1995 to identify large picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) in clinical operation. A continuing strong trend toward the creation and operation of large PACS was identified. In the 15 months since the first such survey the number of clinical large PACS went from 13 to 23, almost a doubling in that short interval. New systems were added in Asia, Europe, and North America. A strong move to primary interpretation from soft copy was identified, and filmless radiology has become a reality. Workstations for interpretation reside mainly within radiology, but one–third of reporting PACS have more than 20 workstations out-side of radiology. Fiber distributed data interface networks were the most numerous, but a variety of networks was reported to be in use. Replies on various display times showed surprisingly good, albeit diverse, speeds. The planned archive length of many systems was 60 months, with usually more than 1 year of data on-line. The main large archive and off-line storage media for these systems were optical disks and magneto-optical disks. Compression was not used before interpretation in most cases, but many systems used 2.5∶1 compression for on-line, interpreted cases and 10∶1 compression for longer-term archiving. A move to digital imaging and communication in medicine interface usage was identified.     

Immune responses to Aspergillus antigen in IL‐4‐/‐ mice and the effect of eosinophil ablation

BACKGROUND: Exposure to Aspergillus fumigatus allergens results in enhanced total serum IgE and peripheral blood eosinophils in mice. The associated pulmonary inflammation and immunologic responses are comparable to those detected in human allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. Allergen-induced cytokines are thought to regulate the inflammatory and immune responses in these animals. METHODS: In the present study, we exposed C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice to A. fumigatus antigen. Both wild-type and IL-4 knockout phenotypes of animals of both strains were used. Some animals were also treated with anti-IL-5 or anti-IFN-gamma. Total serum IgE, Aspergillus species IgG subclass, peripheral blood eosinophils, and lung histology were studied. RESULTS: The results demonstrate similar lung inflammation in all wild-type and IL-4-/- animals exposed to A. fumigatus antigen. Similarly, in spite of the diverse immune response produced by the anticytokine treatment, no major differences were detected among any of the animal groups studied. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that A. fumigatus exposure in an immunologically unaltered host is predominantly of a Th2 type, and that depletion of the Th2 cytokine leads to a similar lung inflammation but with a characteristic Th1 response, suggesting that the pathogenesis of allergic aspergillosis is the result of multiple induction pathways.     

Screening of Twenty-Four South African Combretum and Six Terminalia Species (Combretaceae) for Antioxidant Activities

The dried leaves of Combretum and Terminalia species (Combretaceae) were extracted with acetone, hexane, dichloromethane and methanol. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates were developed under saturated conditions and sprayed with 0.2% 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) in methanol for antioxidant screening. Visualization of separated bands exhibiting antioxidant activities enabled the localization and the subsequent identification of the potential active compounds. The acetone and methanol extracts displayed the presence of antioxidant activity after spraying the chromatogram with DPPH. Hexane and dichloromethane extracts did not have any antioxidant activity. C. hereroense had the highest number of active compounds, followed by C. collinum ssp. taborense, which were 16 and 10, respectively. Acetone extracts of all tested Combretum species had 53 active bands and methanol had 55. All Terminalia species extracted with acetone and methanol had antioxidant activity. T. gazensis and T. mollis methanol extracts had 11 and 14 active compounds respectively in one of the solvent systems used. The qualitative DPPH assay on TLC was successfully used in this study to systematically assess the total antioxidant activity of the Combretum and Terminalia species extracts.