An evaluation of assumptions underlying respondent-driven sampling and the social contexts of sexual and gender minority youth participating in HIV clinical trials in the United States.

Introduction: Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) has been an effective sampling strategy for HIV research in many settings, but has had limited success among some youth in the United States. We evaluated a modified RDS approach for sampling Black and Latinx sexual and gender minority youth (BLSGMY) and explored how lived experiences and social contexts of BLSGMY youth may impact traditional RDS assumptions.

Methods: RDS was implemented in three US cities, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington DC, to engage BLSGMY aged 15 to 24 years in HIV prevention or care intervention trials.

Subfertility among HIV-affected couples in a safer conception cohort in South Africa.

Background: Subfertility among couples affected by HIV has an impact on the well-being of couples who desire to have children and may prolong HIV exposure. Subfertility in the antiretroviral therapy era and its determinants have not yet been well characterized.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the burden and determinants of subfertility among HIV-affected couples seeking safer conception services in South Africa.

TLR Signaling Is Activated in Lymph Node-Resident CLL Cells and Is Only Partially Inhibited by Ibrutinib.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a malignancy of mature B cells driven by B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling and activated primarily in the lymph node. The Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib effectively inhibits BCR-dependent proliferation and survival signals and has emerged as a breakthrough therapy for CLL. However, complete remissions are uncommon and are achieved only after years of continuous therapy.

MALT1 Inhibition Is Efficacious in Both Naïve and Ibrutinib-Resistant Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

The clinical efficacy displayed by ibrutinib in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has been challenged by the frequent emergence of resistant clones. The ibrutinib target, Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), is essential for B-cell receptor signaling, and most resistant cases carry mutations in or , a downstream effector target of BTK. Recent findings show that MI-2, a small molecule inhibitor of the para-caspase MALT1, is effective in preclinical models of another type of BCR pathway-dependent lymphoma.