Sophorolipids (SLs) are extra cellular glycolipids produced by Candida bombicola ATCC 22214 when grown in the presence of glucose and fatty acids. These compounds have a disaccharide head group connected to a long-chain hydroxyl-fatty acid by a glycosidic bond. To explore structure-activity of modified SLs, a new family of amino acid-SL derivatives was prepared. Synthesized analogs consist of a...

Vaginal microbicides hold great promise for the prevention of viral diseases like HIV, but the failure of several microbicide candidates in clinical trials has raised important questions regarding the parameters to be evaluated to determine in vivo efficacy in humans. Clinical trials of the candidate microbicides nonoxynol-9 (N9) and cellulose sulfate revealed an increase in HIV infection, vagi...

Because lubricants may decrease trauma during coitus, it is hypothesized that they could aid in the prevention of HIV acquisition. Therefore, safety and anti-HIV-1 activity of over-the-counter (OTC) aqueous- (n = 10), lipid- (n = 2), and silicone-based (n = 2) products were tested. The rheological properties of the lipid-based lubricants precluded testing with the exception of explant safety te...

Intravaginal anti-HIV microbicides could provide women with a self-controlled means for HIV prevention, but results from clinical trials have been largely disappointing. We postulated that unrecognized effects of intravaginal gels on the upper female reproductive tract might contribute to the lower-than-expected efficacy of HIV microbicides. Our objective was to study the effects of intravagina...

A standardized protocol was used to compare cellular toxicities and anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) activities of candidate microbicides formulated for human use. The microbicides evaluated were cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP), Carraguard, K-Y plus nonoxynol-9 (KY-N9), PRO 2000 (0.5 and 4%), SPL7013 (5%), UC781 (0.1 and 1%), and Vena Gel, along with their accompanying placebo...

BACKGROUND The continued endeavour to design novel, non-detergent molecules that can be useful as topical, prophylactic contraceptives has led to the discovery of substituted isoxazolecarbaldehydes as a new class of compounds exhibiting both spermicidal and acrosin inhibitory activities simultaneously. METHODS Normal human semen samples were used to detect the spermicidal and acrosin inhibito...

A phase III clinical trial to test the effectiveness of the HIV microbicide Ushercell was recently stopped because interim analysis indicated that the rate of infection with HIV in women using the microbicide was higher than the rate of infection in those using the placebo. Ushercell, which was being developed by the nonprofit reproductive health organization CONRAD, is a cellulose sulfate comp...

The receptor sites and nerve pathways involved in the reflex production of laryngospasm have been investigated in the cat. The trigeminal nerves and the internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerves were shown to provide an afferent pathway for the reflex when the nasopharynx and larynx were exposed to ether vapour. Evidence was obtained suggesting that the recurrent laryngeal nerves may for...

This paper describes an enzyme immunoassay for the quantitative determination of IgG, IgA, and IgM immunoglobulins on RBCs. Ether eluates made from RBCs were followed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of immunoglobulin concentration. Calibration curves were derived from immunoglobulin standards and the number of molecules of each isotype per RBC was calculated. The assay was carried out i...

I n sub-Saharan Africa, almost 60% of HIV infections are among women [1], and the number of new HIV infections in women worldwide continues to escalate. The high incidence of HIV in many African countries provides the optimum environment for research on technologies that could prevent women from becoming infected, including microbicides. In this article, we discuss the recent highly publicised ...