A peptide-loaded dendritic cell based cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) vaccination strategy using peptides that span SIV Tat, Rev, and Env overlapping reading frames

CTL based vaccine strategies in the macaque model of AIDS have shown promise in slowing the progression to disease. However, rapid CTL escape viruses can emerge rendering such vaccination useless. We hypothesized that such escape is made more difficult if the immunizing CTL epitope falls within a region of the virus that has a high density of overlapping reading frames which encode several viral proteins. To test this hypothesis, we immunized macaques using a peptide-loaded dendritic cell approach employing epitopes in the second coding exon of SIV Tat which spans reading frames for both Env and Rev. We report here that autologous dendritic cells, loaded with SIV peptides from Tat, Rev, and Env, induced a distinct cellular immune response measurable ex vivo. However, conclusive in vivo control of a challenge inoculation of SIVmac239 was not observed suggesting that CTL epitopes within densely overlapping reading frames are also subject to escape mutations

Prevalence of GB virus type C in urban Americans infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1

GBV-C virus infection has been linked to improved clinical outcome in HIV-1 co-infected individuals. The epidemiology of GBV-C has, thus far, been limited to the gay male, HIV(+ )population. Here we describe the prevalence of antibodies against GBV-C envelope glycoprotein E2 and GBV-C viremia in an HIV(+ )inner city population. This study group is predominantly African-American; 41% of the participants are women. The major risk factor for HIV infection is intravenous drug use. Overall, 56% of the study population had evidence of current or past infection with GBV-C. GBV-C exposure was not associated with hepatitis C virus infection. The group of participants, who had GBV-C viremia and anti-E2 antibodies, had high percentage of patients with an undetectable HIV-1 viral load. These data provide increased insight into the prevalence of GBV-C co-infection in the HIV epidemic in this understudied population

Characterization and biomedical application of Tetradecamethylcycloheptasiloxane, a silicone-type biosurfactant produced by Streptomyces castaneoglobisporus AJ9 isolated from solar salt works

694-704Tetradecamethylcycloheptasiloxane (C14H42O7Si7), a biosurfactant, was extracted by acid precipitation method from the haloalkaliphilic actinomycetes, Streptomyces castaneoglobisporus AJ9 (Gene Bank KC603900.1) and characterized by GC-MS analysis. The purified biosurfactant could effectively degrade dyes such as orange MR, direct violet, cotton red, reactive yellow and nitro green. Antimicrobial screening results showed that biosurfactants could effectively control bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus and fungal pathogens such as Fusarium sp. and Penicillium sp. Even a small diminutive quantity of biosurfactant (100 μg) could totally block the multiplication of White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) in shrimp in vivo. The suppression of cancer cells in vitro by the biosurfactant was 74 % as confirmed by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and residual plot analysis. Wheat bran, groundnut oilcake and oilseed cake seem to enhance biosurfactant production