IHMT

Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical

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2012

Treatment-associated polymorphisms in protease are significantly associated with higher viral load and lower CD4 count in newly diagnosed drug-naive HIV-1 infected patients.

BACKGROUND:
The effect of drug resistance transmission on disease progression in the newly infected patient is not well understood. Major drug resistance mutations severely impair viral fitness in a drug free environment, and therefore are expected to revert quickly. Compensatory mutations, often already polymorphic in wild-type viruses, do not tend to revert after transmission.
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Rapid, laser-induced conversion of 20-hydroxyecdysone and its diacetonide — experimental set-up of a system for photochemical transformation of bioactive substances.

BACKGROUND:
Photochemical transformation of certain bioactive compounds for the purpose of obtaining derivatives with increased bioactivity is a prospective area of synthetic chemistry. Ecdysteroids, analogs of the insect molting hormone, which can also exert several beneficial effects in mammals including humans, contain an enone moiety in their B ring, and, as such, are good candidates for photochemical transformations.
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Application of hyperthermia for cancer treatment: recent patents review.

Cancer is one of the main causes of death in the world and its incidence increases every day. Current treatments are insufficient and present many breaches. Hyperthermia is an old concept and since early it was established as a cancer treatment option, mainly in superficial cancers.
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In vitro cytotoxic activity of novel protoflavone analogs – selectivity towards a multidrug resistant cancer cell line.

BACKGROUND:
Protoapigenone (PA), a natural flavonoid possessing an unusual p-quinol moiety on its B ring, is a prospective novel lead compound against cancer currently in development, together with WYC0209, a potent synthetic PA analog. Structure activity relationships (SAR) concerning different 1′-O-alkyl side-chains were also studied on two sets of derivatives.
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Is prnt a pseudogene? Identification of ram Prt in testis and ejaculated spermatozoa.

A hallmark of prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopaties is the conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)), expressed by the prion gene (prnp), into an abnormally folded isoform (PrP(Sc)) with amyloid-like features that causes scrapie in sheep among other diseases. prnp together with prnd (which encodes a prion-like protein designated as Doppel), and prnt (that encodes the prion protein testis specific–Prt) with sprn (shadow of prion protein gene, that encodes Shadoo or Sho) genes, constitute the “prion gene complex”.
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Inhibitors of bacterial efflux pumps that also inhibit efflux pumps of cancer cells.

Bacteria and cancer cells frequently increase their resistance to chemotherapeutics as a consequence of therapy. Whenever studied, refractory response to chemotherapy is due to the over-expression of efflux pumps that render the bacterium or cancer cell resistant not only to the agent used for therapy, but to many, if not all other agents as well.
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HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean: what do we know?

Latin America and the Caribbean countries have increased the scaling-up of antiretroviral treatment in the last years. The increase of transmitted drug resistance has been feared due to the worrisome indicators associated with the emergence of drug resistance and monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Trypanosoma cruzi IV causing outbreaks of acute Chagas disease and infections by different haplotypes in the Western Brazilian Amazonia.

BACKGROUND:
Chagas disease is an emergent tropical disease in the Brazilian Amazon Region, with an increasing number of cases in recent decades. In this region, the sylvatic cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission, which constitutes a reservoir of parasites that might be associated with specific molecular, epidemiological and clinical traits, has been little explored. The objective of this work is to genetically characterize stocks of T. cruzi from human cases, triatomines and reservoir mammals in the State of Amazonas, in the Western Brazilian Amazon.
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Memory B-cell depletion is a feature of HIV-2 infection even in the absence of detectable viremia.

OBJECTIVE:
Memory B-cell loss has long been recognized as an important contributor to HIV immunodeficiency. HIV-2 infection, which is characterized by a slow rate of progression to AIDS and reduced to undetectable viremia, provides a unique model to investigate B-cell disturbances.
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