Impairment of neutrophil functions and high levels of apoptotic neutrophils have been reported in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the direct in vitro effects of the different HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) on neutrophil functions and apoptosis and to explore their mechanisms of action. The effects of nelfinavir (NFV), saquinavir (SQV),...

ficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection has been advanced by the development of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HAART reduces plasma HIV-RNA below detectable limits in most cases. However, some patients do not have a sustainable antiviral response, even after experiencing a decrease in plasma HIV-RNA, due to the development of drug resistance and metabolic complications. This undesirable...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Because of prior inconsistent findings, we studied a large cohort of HIV-infected children to determine: (1) prevalence of insulin resistance (IR); (2) anthropometric and clinical correlates of IR, and (3) concomitant abnormalities of glucose tolerance. METHODS The study population consisted of 451 children from the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study. The outcome of interest was ...

Therapy for central nervous system (CNS) diseases requires drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). BBB disruption has been reported in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the related animal models as evidenced by increased infiltration of inflammatory cells or increased staining of Igs in the central nervous system. Although CNS penetration of ther...

AIDS therapies employing HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) are associated with changes in fat metabolism. However, the cellular mechanisms affected by PIs are not clear. Thus, the affects of PIs on adipocyte differentiation were examined in vitro using C3H10T1/2 stem cells. In these cells the PIs, nelfinavir, saquinavir, and ritonavir, reduced triglyceride accumulation, lipogenesis, and expression ...

To the Editor: We read with interest the excellent article of Daugas et al [1] on HAART-related nephropathies and we would like to clarify several points. There has been no case report of Fanconi syndrome (FS) related to reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) except one induced by didanosine [2]. Actually, the suspected case of nevirapine-induced FS was largely related to lactic acidosis rathe...

treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type-1. According to in vitro experiments, DRV was active against HIV-1 with PI resistance mutations and against PI resistant clinical isolates. This drug is expected to be effective in antiretroviral treatment-experienced patients, such as those possessing HIV-1 strains which are resistant to more than one PI. Bouche et al. recently determined plasma DR...

Tumor vascular endothelium is rather resistant to the cytotoxic effects of radiation. The HIV protease inhibitors (HPI) amprenavir, nelfinavir, and saquinavir have previously been shown to sensitize tumor cells to the cytotoxic effects of radiation. Additionally, this class of drug has been shown to inhibit angiogenesis and tumor cell migration. Therefore, in the current study, we wanted to det...

The protease (PR) of Murine leukemia virus (MLV) was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified to homogeneity and characterized by using various assay methods, including HPLC-based, photometric and fluorometric activity measurements. The specificity of the bacterially expressed PR was similar to that of virion-extracted PR. Compared with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) PR, the pH opti...

Virtually all the compounds that are currently used, or under advanced clinical trial, for the treatment of HIV infections, belong to one of the following classes: (i) nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs): i.e. zidovudine, didanosine, zalcitabine, stavudine, lamivudine, abacavir, emtricitabine, tenofovir (PMPA) disoproxil fumarate; (ii) non-nucleoside reverse transcrip...