IVIA - Ibero-American VLBI Initiative -Progress on the Brazilian side.

IVIA is a joint initiative of at least 8 Latin-American countries plus Portugal and Spain to make good use of large telecommunications antennas that are out of service in these countries, because most international communications are now using submarine cables. The first step will be to refurbish the antennas and then to start doing single dish observations of radiosources. In a second step the antennas will be equipped with VLBI (Very Long Base Interferometry) equipment, to establish a VLBI network.

Development in lipid drugs.

Lipopeptide lipid moieties induce dendritic cell (DC) internalization and epitopes are recognized by MHC, the major histocompatibility complex. HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1) lipopeptide vaccine candidate elicits immune responses, and sustains HIV control after highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Mp- and Dp-MART (anti-melanoma lipopeptides) induce strong CTL (cytolytic T lymphocyte) response.

Human immunodeficiency virus and host cell lipids. Interesting pathways in research for a new HIV therapy.

It has been reported in the literature that biological membranes arising from HIV-induced cell fusion, as well as syncytium formation between infected and non-infected cells and those involved in transduction, viral DNA nuclear import and virion budding from the host cell, are all made of proteins, a phospholipid (P) bilayer and cholesterol (C). However, the P/C molar ratio is higher in the retroviral envelope than in the plasma membrane where they originate, and higher than in the nuclear envelope. Mechanisms are described which elucidate this puzzling fact, as well as cholesterol-dependent leakage and pore formation during cell fusion.

Lipids and retroviruses.

The role that lipids may play in enveloped viruses is reviewed. Small lipid molecules can influence retrovirus binding to cell receptors, plasma membrane fusion, and transcription. Palmitoylation following myristoylation of viral glycoproteins is required at the transmembrane level for signal transduction as well as for virion budding and maturation.

Fructose-induced enhanced mitogenicity of diploid human cells: possible relationship with cell differentiation.

Fructose strongly stimulates the growth of normal diploid human skin fibroblasts (SFs) and induces marked changes in their morphology and lipid accumulation. This mitogenic effect occurs despite very low fructose consumption and depends on the presence of glutamine. The cell kinetics of cultured fructose-fed human skin fibroblasts were different from those fed on glucose: in the presence of fructose a high proliferative index persisted at Day 14 of culture and the duration of the total cell cycle and of the G1 + 1/2 M and S phases was slightly shorter.