Considering Quality Measures for the Care of Transgender Patients: Preliminary Findings from a Technical Expert Panel.

Transgender (TG) individuals are a historically understudied and underserved patient population. Although clinical guidelines for the care of TG patients exist, quality measures (QMs) specific to this population are lacking. The goal of this study was to obtain expert input on aspects of care for which quality measurement may be appropriate and describe feedback on candidate QMs.

Integration of Anal Dysplasia Screening into the Primary Care of Persons Living with HIV.

Anal dysplasia can lead to anal cancer, which affects persons living with HIV (PLWH) more than people in the general population. Screening for anal dysplasia is recommended to detect anal cancer at an early stage. The aim of our process improvement project was to improve compliance and consistency in implementing anal dysplasia screening for PLWH receiving care at a Ryan White facility covering 18 counties in western North Carolina.

Fragment based discovery of arginine isosteres through REPLACE: towards non-ATP competitive CDK inhibitors.

In order to develop non-ATP competitive CDK2/cyclin A inhibitors, the REPLACE strategy has been applied to generate fragment alternatives for the N-terminal tetrapeptide of the cyclin binding motif (HAKRRLIF) involved in substrate recruitment prior to phosphotransfer. The docking approach used for the prediction of small molecule mimics for peptide determinants was validated through reproduction of experimental binding modes of known inhibitors and provides useful information for evaluating binding to protein-protein interaction sites. Further to this, potential arginine isosteres predicted using the validated LigandFit docking method were ligated to the truncated C-terminal peptide, RLIF using solid phase synthesis and evaluated in a competitive binding assay.

A high-throughput screening assay for assessing the viability of Cryptococcus neoformans under nutrient starvation conditions.

Cryptococcus neoformans causes an estimated 600,000 AIDS-related deaths annually that occur primarily in resource-limited countries. Fluconazole and amphotericin B are currently available for the treatment of cryptococcal-related infections. However, fluconazole has limited clinical efficacy and amphotericin B requires intravenous infusion and is associated with high renal toxicity.