Medicinal plants used in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus

Since the beginning of the epidemic, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected around 70 million people worldwide, most of whom reside is sub-Saharan Africa. There have been very promising developments in the treatment of HIV with anti-retroviral drug cocktails. However, drug resistance to anti-HIV drugs is emerging, and many people infected with HIV have adverse reactions or do not have ready access to currently available HIV chemotherapies. Thus, there is a need to discover new anti-HIV agents to supplement our current arsenal of anti-HIV drugs and to provide therapeutic options for populations with limited resources or access to currently efficacious chemotherapies. Plant-derived natural products continue to serve as a reservoir for the discovery of new medicines, including anti-HIV agents. This review presents a survey of plants that have shown anti-HIV activity, both in vitro and in vivo

The ARID1B spectrum in 143 patients: from nonsyndromic intellectual disability to Coffin–Siris syndrome

Purpose: Pathogenic variants in ARID1B are one of the most frequent causes of intellectual disability (ID) as determined by large-scale exome sequencing studies. Most studies published thus far describe clinically diagnosed Coffin–Siris patients (ARID1B-CSS) and it is unclear whether these data are representative for patients identified through sequencing of unbiased ID cohorts (ARID1B-ID). We therefore sought to determine genotypic and phenotypic differences between ARID1B-ID and ARID1B-CSS. In parallel, we investigated the effect of different methods of phenotype reporting. Methods: Clinicians entered clinical data in an extensive web-based survey. Results: 79 ARID1B-CSS and 64 ARID1B-ID patients were included. CSS-associated dysmorphic features, such as thick eyebrows, long eyelashes, thick alae nasi, long and/or broad philtrum, small nails and small or absent fifth distal phalanx and hypertrichosis, were observed significantly more often (p < 0.001) in ARID1B-CSS patients. No other significant differences were identified. Conclusion: There are only minor differences between ARID1B-ID and ARID1B-CSS patients. ARID1B-related disorders seem to consist of a spectrum, and patients should be managed similarly. We demonstrated that data collection methods without an explicit option to report the absence of a feature (such as most Human Phenotype Ontology-based methods) tended to underestimate gene-related features

Impact damage assessment by using peridynamic theory

This study presents an application of peridynamic theory for predicting residual strength of impact damaged building components by considering a reinforced panel subjected to multiple load paths. The validity of the approach is established first by simulating a controlled experiment resulting in mixed-mode fracture of concrete. The agreement between the PD prediction and the experimentally observed behavior is remarkable especially considering the simple material model used for the concrete. Subsequently, the PD simulation concerns damage assessment and residual strength of a reinforced panel under compression after impact due to a rigid penetrator

Infectious complications in pediatric liver transplantation candidates

PubMed ID: 19490485We analyzed infections that occurred within one month prior to LT, identified factors associated with their occurrence and effect of infections on post-transplant mortality. The study group included 40 consecutive children who underwent LT. Sites and types of infection and culture results were recorded prospectively. IID was assessed. Risk factors for the infectious events were analyzed. Forty infection episodes were found in 24 patients (60%); 90% were bacterial, 7.5% fungal, and 2.5% viral. Overall, IID was 38.2 per 1000 patient days. Sites of bacterial infection were urinary tract in 13 events (36.1%) and blood stream in 11 events (30.5%). Bacteremia (culture positive infection episodes) was identified in 19 events (52.7%). Gram-negative isolates were twice as frequent as Gram-positive infections (63.1% vs. 36.9%). Risk factors for the infectious complications were young age, low body weight, prior abdominal surgery, chronic liver disease related to biliary problems, presence of ascites, portal hypertension and cirrhosis, and high PELD score (p < 0.05 for all). Infectious complications in pediatric LT candidates are common. Preventive measures are important not only to reduce the infectious complications but also to prevent the post-operative mortality. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S