Foundation species promote community stability by increasing diversity in a giant kelp forest.

Foundation species structure communities, promote biodiversity, and stabilize ecosystem processes by creating locally stable environmental conditions. Despite their critical importance, the role of foundation species in stabilizing natural communities has seldom been quantified. In theory, the stability of a foundation species should promote community stability by enhancing species richness, altering the population fluctuations of individual species, or both.

Need for therapeutic drug monitoring in HIV-1 infected children receiving efavirenz doses according to international guidelines.

Background: International guidelines for the treatment of HIV-1 infected children recommend efavirenz plus nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor combination therapy for first line therapy. Until now little is known about the steady state pharmacokinetics of efavirenz in children.

Methods: 11 HIV-1 infected children at the age of 4 to 10 years received efavirenz according to body weight adjusted dose recommendations at 10 -15 mg/kg body weight.

Saposin A mobilizes lipids from low cholesterol and high bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate-containing membranes: patient variant Saposin A lacks lipid extraction capacity.

Saposin A (Sap-A) is one of five known sphingolipid activator proteins required for the lysosomal degradation of sphingolipids and for the loading of lipid antigens onto antigen-presenting molecules of the CD1 type. Sap-A assists in the degradation of galactosylceramide by galactosylceramide-beta-galactosidase in vivo, which takes place at the surface of intraendosomal/intralysosomal vesicles. Sap-A is believed to mediate the interaction between the enzyme and its membrane-bound substrate.