Effect of scavenger receptor BI antagonist ITX5061 in patients with hepatitis C virus infection undergoing liver transplantation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) entry inhibitors have been hypothesized to prevent infection of the liver after transplantation. ITX5061 is a Scavenger Receptor B-I (SR-BI) antagonist that blocks HCV entry and infection in vitro. We assessed the safety and efficacy of ITX5061 to limit HCV infection of the graft. The study included 23 HCV infected patients undergoing liver transplantation. The first 13 "control" patients did not receive drug. The subsequent 10 patients received ITX5061 150 mg immediately pre- and post-transplant, and daily for 1 week thereafter. ITX5061 pharmacokinetics and plasma HCV RNA were quantified. Viral genetic diversity was measured by ultradeep pyrosequencing. ITX5061 was well tolerated with measurable plasma concentrations during therapy. Whilst the median HCV RNA reduction was greater in ITX treated patients at all time points in the first week after transplantation there was no difference in the overall change in the area over the HCV RNA curve in the 7-day treatment period. However, in genotype 1 infected patients treatment was associated with a sustained reduction in HCV RNA levels compared to the control group (area over the HCV RNA curve analysis, p=0.004). Ultradeep pyrosequencing revealed a complex and evolving pattern of HCV variants infecting the graft during the first week. ITX5061 significantly limited viral evolution where the median divergence between day 0 and day 7 was 3.5% in the control group compared to 0.1% in the treated group.CONCLUSIONS: ITX5061 reduces plasma HCV RNA post transplant notably in genotype 1 infected patients and slows viral evolution. Following liver transplantation the likely contribution of extrahepatic reservoirs of HCV necessitates combining entry inhibitors such as ITX5061 with inhibitors of replication in future studies. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01292824. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.</p

A restricted spectrum of missense KMT2D variants cause a multiple malformations disorder distinct from Kabuki syndrome

Purpose: To investigate if specific exon 38 or 39 KMT2D missense variants (MVs) cause a condition distinct from Kabuki syndrome type 1 (KS1). Methods: Multiple individuals, with MVs in exons 38 or 39 of KMT2D that encode a highly conserved region of 54 amino acids flanked by Val3527 and Lys3583, were identified and phenotyped. Functional tests were performed to study their pathogenicity and understand the disease mechanism. Results: The consistent clinical features of the affected individuals, from seven unrelated families, included choanal atresia, athelia or hypoplastic nipples, branchial sinus abnormalities, neck pits, lacrimal duct anomalies, hearing loss, external ear malformations, and thyroid abnormalities. None of the individuals had intellectual disability. The frequency of clinical features, objective software-based facial analysis metrics, and genome-wide peripheral blood DNA methylation patterns in these patients were significantly different from that of KS1. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that these MVs perturb KMT2D secondary structure through an increased disordered to ɑ-helical transition. Conclusion: KMT2D MVs located in a specific region spanning exons 38 and 39 and affecting highly conserved residues cause a novel multiple malformations syndrome distinct from KS1. Unlike KMT2D haploinsufficiency in KS1, these MVs likely result in disease through a dominant negative mechanism.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.16-17/10/Newlife - The Charity for Disabled Children FS/13/32/30069/BHF_/British Heart Foundation/United Kingdom 72160007/Chile's National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research MR/K011154/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdompre-prin

Hydrogen and Carbon Nanotubes from Pyrolysis-Catalysis of Waste Plastics: A Review

More than 27 million tonnes of waste plastics are generated in Europe each year representing a considerable potential resource. There has been extensive research into the production of liquid fuels and aromatic chemicals from pyrolysis-catalysis of waste plastics. However, there is less work on the production of hydrogen from waste plastics via pyrolysis coupled with catalytic steam reforming. In this paper, the different reactor designs used for hydrogen production from waste plastics are considered and the influence of different catalysts and process parameters on the yield of hydrogen from different types of waste plastics are reviewed. Waste plastics have also been investigated as a source of hydrocarbons for the generation of carbon nanotubes via the chemical vapour deposition route. The influences on the yield and quality of carbon nanotubes derived from waste plastics are reviewed in relation to the reactor designs used for production, catalyst type used for carbon nanotube growth and the influence of operational parameters

Sex differences in atazanavir pharmacokinetics and associations with time to clinical events: AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5202

It is uncertain whether HIV-1 antiretroviral exposure and clinical response varies between males and females or different race/ethnic groups. We describe ritonavir-enhanced atazanavir pharmacokinetics in relation to virological failure, safety and tolerability in treatment-naive individuals to investigate potential differences

ALICE: Physics Performance Report, Volume I

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently includes more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both nuclear and high-energy physics, from about 80 institutions in 28 countries. The experiment was approved in February 1997. The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2001 and construction has started for most detectors. Since the last comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) will give an updated and comprehensive summary of the current status and performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, where appropriate, as well as a description of systems which have not been published in a Technical Design Report. The PPR will be published in two volumes. The current Volume I contains: 1. a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, 2. relevant experimental conditions at the LHC, 3. a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and 4. a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo generators. Volume II, which will be published separately, will contain detailed simulations of combined detector performance, event reconstruction, and analysis of a representative sample of relevant physics observables from global event characteristics to hard processes