Mapping brain activity induced by olfaction of virgin olive oil aroma.

The difficulty of explaining sensory descriptors of virgin olive oil aroma by the analysis of volatile compounds is partially due to the subjective opinions of panelists and the lack of information of the neural mechanisms that ultimately produce a sensory perception. In this study the technique of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been applied to study brain activity during the smelling of virgin olive oil of different qualities. The volatile compounds of the samples were analyzed by solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography to explain the differences in the aromas presented to the subjects during the fMRI experiments.

HIV-hepatitis C virus co-infection is associated with decreased plasmatic IL-7 levels.

We analysed the potential influence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection over IL-7 levels and thymic function in naive HIV-infected patients and after effective HAART. HIV-HCV-co-infected patients had lower plasmatic IL-7 levels compared with HIV-monoinfected patients. This effect may not be associated either with HCV monoinfection or with the rate of liver injury.

Thymic volume predicts CD4 T-cell decline in HIV-infected adults under prolonged treatment interruption.

Objective: To analyze the predictive capacity of thymic volume in CD4 T-cell loss after treatment interruption in HIV-infected patients with high nadir CD4 count.

Methods: Thirty-nine HIV-infected patients with CD4 counts greater than or equal to 500 cells/microL, nadir CD4 counts greater than or equal to 250 cells/microL, and plasma viral loads less than 50 copies/mL for at least the past 12 months began a treatment interruption program. The event of interest for this study was the decrease of CD4 count below 350 cells/microL.

High thymic volume is associated with viral replication and immunologic impairment only early after HAART interruption in chronic HIV infection.

One of the strategies that has been investigated to reduce antiretroviral treatment toxicity in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is structured treatment interruption (STI). Our aim was to analyze early viral and immune dynamics after interruption of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and to determine whether thymic function-related markers play a role in preventing CD4 count decline caused by increased viral replication. This was a prospective study of an open cohort of 47 HIV-infected patients with a median 969 CD4 count and prolonged viral suppression.