Safety and Tolerability of Oral Cannabinoids in People Living with HIV on Long-Term ART: A Randomized, Open-Label, Interventional Pilot Clinical Trial (CTNPT 028).

Background: With anti-inflammatory properties, cannabinoids may be a potential strategy to reduce immune activation in people living with HIV (PLWH) but more information on their safety and tolerability is needed.

Methods: We conducted an open-label interventional pilot study at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada. PLWH were randomized to oral Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): cannabidiol (CBD) combination (THC 2.

Monkeypox in Montréal: Epidemiology, Phylogenomics, and Public Health Response to a Large North American Outbreak.

Background: Monkeypox, a viral zoonotic disease, is causing a global outbreak outside of endemic areas.

Objective: To characterize the outbreak of monkeypox in Montréal, the first large outbreak in North America.

Design: Epidemiologic and laboratory surveillance data and a phylogenomic analysis were used to describe and place the outbreak in a global context.

Depression, diabetes and immigration status: a retrospective cohort study using the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Background: A bidirectional association between depression and diabetes exists, but has not been evaluated in the context of immigrant status. Given that social determinants of health differ between immigrants and nonimmigrants, we evaluated the association between diabetes and depression incidence, depression and diabetes incidence, and whether immigrant status modified this association, among immigrants and nonimmigrants in Canada.

Methods: We employed a retrospective cohort design using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Comprehensive cohort (baseline [2012-2015] and 3-year follow-up [2015-2018]).

Chemsex and incidence of sexually transmitted infections among Canadian pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users in the l'Actuel PrEP Cohort (2013-2020).

Objectives: Use of illicit substances during sex (chemsex) may increase transmission of HIV and other STIs. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective at preventing HIV transmission, providing an important prevention tool for those who practise chemsex. However, it does not prevent acquisition of other STIs.

Evolution of Antibodies to Native Trimeric Envelope and Their Fc-Dependent Functions in Untreated and Treated Primary HIV Infection.

People living with HIV (PLWH) develop both anti-envelope-specific antibodies, which bind the closed trimeric HIV envelope present on infected cells, and anti-gp120-specific antibodies, which bind gp120 monomers shed by infected cells and taken up by CD4 on uninfected bystander cells. Both antibodies have an Fc portion that binds to Fc receptors on several types of innate immune cells and stimulates them to develop antiviral functions. Among these Fc-dependent functions (FcDFs) are antibody-dependent (AD) cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), AD cellular trogocytosis (ADCT), and AD phagocytosis (ADCP).

Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Uptake Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Who Used nPEP: A Longitudinal Analysis of Attendees at a Large Sexual Health Clinic in Montréal (Canada).

Background: Reducing HIV transmission using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) requires focussing on individuals at high acquisition risk, such as men who have sex with men with a history of nonoccupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP). This study aims to characterize longitudinal trends in PrEP uptake and its determinants among nPEP users in Montréal.

Methods: Eligible attendees at Clinique médicale l'Actuel were recruited prospectively starting in October 2000 (nPEP) and January 2013 (PrEP).

Polyfunctional Fc Dependent Activity of Antibodies to Native Trimeric Envelope in HIV Elite Controllers.

Antibody dependent (AD) functions such as AD cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) were associated with lower viral load (VL) in untreated HIV progressors and protection from HIV infection in the modestly protective RV144 HIV vaccine trial. Target cells used to measure ADCC, AD complement deposition (ADCD), and AD cellular trogocytosis (ADCT) have been either HIV envelope (Env) gp120-coated CEM.NKr.

Vitamin E is an effective treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in HIV mono-infected patients.

Objective: HIV-infected patients are at increased risk of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Vitamin E is recommended for treatment of NASH in the general population. However, its safety and efficacy among HIV-infected patients remain unknown.

Cannabis Consumption in People Living with HIV: Reasons for Use, Secondary Effects, and Opportunities for Health Education.

Rates of cannabis consumption range from 40% to 74% among people living with HIV (PLWH). Little is known about the reasons for cannabis use, related modes of administration, effectiveness for symptom relief, or undesirable effects in the modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) era. Our aim was to conduct an exploratory study to identify potential areas for further evaluation and intervention.

Cohort profile: l'Actuel Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Cohort study in Montreal, Canada.

Purpose: The was established to monitor the uptake, effectiveness, safety and changes in sexual risk behaviours among individuals receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the prevention of HIV. This prospective dynamic cohort is based at Clinique médicale l'Actuel, a large sexual health clinic located in Montreal, Canada.

Participants: Since the cohort inception in January of 2013 through June 2018, 2156 individuals consulted for PrEP as participants in the l'Actuel PrEP Cohort.

Quantifying Anti-HIV Envelope-Specific Antibodies in Plasma from HIV Infected Individuals.

Quantifying HIV Envelope (Env)-specific antibodies in HIV plasma is useful for interpreting antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity assay results. HIV Env, the only viral protein expressed on the surface of infected cells, has a native trimeric closed conformation on cells infected with wild-type HIV. However, CD4 uninfected bystander cells in HIV cell cultures bind gp120 shed from HIV cells exposing CD4-induced epitopes normally hidden in native Env.

Oral cannabinoids in people living with HIV on effective antiretroviral therapy: CTN PT028-study protocol for a pilot randomised trial to assess safety, tolerability and effect on immune activation.

Introduction: Despite antiretroviral therapy (ART), people living with HIV have higher rates of non-infectious chronic diseases. These conditions are driven by relatively high levels of inflammation persisting on ART compared with uninfected individuals. Chronic inflammation also contributes to HIV persistence during ART.

Angiocentric lymph proliferative disorder (lymphomatoid granulomatosis) in a person with newly-diagnosed HIV infection: a case report.

Background: Angiocentric lymph proliferative disorder (ALPD) is a granulomatous lymphoproliferative condition associated with various primary and secondary immunodeficiency states. ALPD is so rare that its prevalence has not been established. Typically affecting middle-aged adults, this condition is often found in the context of Epstein Bar Virus infection and consists of angiocentric and angioinvasive pulmonary infiltrates.

Nasal Nitric Oxide Levels in HIV Infection: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Low levels of nasal NO have been associated with increased propensity to rhinosinusitis and respiratory tract infections. Our objective was to describe nasal NO levels in HIV-infected individuals versus healthy controls and determine possible risk factors for reduced nasal NO levels.

Materials And Methods: HIV-infected individuals and healthy controls were recruited.

Socio-economic status and time trends associated with early ART initiation following primary HIV infection in Montreal, Canada: 1996 to 2015.

Introduction: Guidelines regarding antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation in HIV infection have varied over time, with the 2015 World Health Organization recommendation suggesting ART initiation at the time of diagnosis regardless of CD4 T-cell counts. Herein, we investigated the influence of socio-demographic and clinical factors in addition to time trends on early ART initiation among participants of the Montreal Primary HIV Infection Study.

Methods: The Montreal Primary HIV Infection Study is a prospective cohort established in three community medical centres (CMCs) and two university medical centres (UMCs).

Screening for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis by using cytokeratin 18 and transient elastography in HIV mono-infection.

Background And Aim: HIV-infected individuals are at high risk of developing nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a leading cause of end-stage liver disease in Western countries. Nonetheless, due to the invasiveness of liver biopsy, NASH remains poorly understood in HIV mono-infection. We aimed to characterize the prevalence and predictors of NASH in unselected HIV mono-infected patients by means of non-invasive diagnostic tools.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease diagnosed by transient elastography with controlled attenuation parameter in unselected HIV monoinfected patients.

Objective: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease in Western countries. HIV-infected persons without viral hepatitis are at increased risk of NAFLD. Nevertheless, data on NAFLD in HIV monoinfection are scarce.

Rapid progression to gummatous syphilitic hepatitis and neurosyphilis in a patient with newly-diagnosed HIV.

We review the literature on hepatic involvement in patients with HIV and syphilis co-infection and describe a case of rapid progression to neurosyphilis and presumed gummatous syphilitic hepatitis in a patient newly diagnosed with HIV. To our knowledge, this is the first case of syphilitic hepatitis with gummas described in the HIV population.

Seeing is believing? The form and substance of French medical debates over Lourdes.

Recent works on Lourdes have tended to emphasize the positive personal, social, and spiritual aspects of a pilgrimage, while downplaying the role of religious politics in (over)determining discussions around the events taking place there over the course of the Third Republic. This paper seeks to reassert the extent to which the medical community remained divided, along religious lines, over the existence and nature of the cures taking place at Lourdes well into the twentieth century, while analyzing how Catholic physicians were able to create an aura of therapeutic credibility around the cures.