Drug interactions between voriconazole, darunavir/ritonavir and tenofovir/emtricitabine in an HIV-infected patient treated for Aspergillus candidus lung abscess.

We report an unusual case of pulmonary aspergillosis in a patient with AIDS and we demonstrated the drug-drug interactions between voriconazole, darunavir/ritonavir and tenofovir/emtricitabine. The combination darunavir-ritonavir-voriconazole should be avoided.

A simple route to functionalize polyacrylamide hydrogels for the independent tuning of mechanotransduction cues.

Physico-chemical and biochemical factors in the local cellular microenvironment are known to impact on multiple aspects of cell behaviour through specific signal pathways. These mechanotransduction cues can couple each other to regulate cell fate, and it remains unclear whether mechanotransduction in different contexts shares common mechanisms. Undoubtedly, a challenge will involve the further characterization of such cooperative mechanisms, as well as clearly defining the individual role of each mechanical and biochemical parameter.

Slippery or sticky boundary conditions: control of wrinkling in metal-capped thin polymer films by selective adhesion to substrates.

Wrinkling patterns at the metallized surface of thin polymer films are shown to be sensitive to the sticky or slippery character of the polymer-substrate interface. Existing theoretical models were expanded to specific boundary conditions (adhesive versus slippery) in order to rationalize these observations. Based on this concept, we were able to propose a new and simple method to orient the wrinkles by chemically patterning the substrate with regions of high and low adhesion.

Relaxation of residual stress and reentanglement of polymers in spin-coated films.

Performing detailed studies of viscoelastic dewetting of thin polystyrene films on solid substrates, we demonstrate the existence of residual stress due to strongly out of equilibrium chain conformations and a reduced entanglement density resulting from film preparation by spin coating. The ratio of stress over elastic modulus was found to increase strongly with decreasing film thickness and increasing chain length. Full equilibration of chain conformations required long times comparable to bulk reptation times.

Dynamics of the amorphous and crystalline alpha-, gamma-phases of indomethacin.

Crystallization processes in indomethacin can be observed below Tg leading to different forms depending on the thermal treatment: a rapid and deep quench below Tg leads to the metastable alpha-phase and a slow cooling close to Tg gives rise to the stable gamma-phase. To understand this atypical behavior, we have studied the molecular mobility of the amorphous and crystalline forms of indomethacin by dielectric relaxation and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Two relaxations were detected in the glassy state obtained from the deeply quenched liquid.

Polymorphisms of the tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) gene in patients with acute coronary syndromes and in healthy subjects : impact of the V264M substitution on plasma levels of TFPI.

-Mutations of the gene encoding tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), an inhibitor of TF-induced activation of the coagulation cascade, were screened for in 130 patients and 142 healthy controls to determine whether these variants contribute to acute coronary syndromes or modify plasma TFPI levels. The following 3 new polymorphisms were identified: 384T-->C in exon IV, which does not change the corresponding amino acid (tyrosine 57); -33C-->T in intron 7 (the T/T, C/T, and C/C genotypes were found in approximately 50%, 40%, and 10% of subjects in both groups); and 874G-->A in exon IX (GTG-->ATG), which predicts a valine to methionine change (V264M) in the carboxy-terminus tail of TFPI. The V264M polymorphism was found in 9.