Publications by authors named "Keira H Skolimowska"

Article Synopsis
  • Tuberculous meningitis is a serious disease that can cause death or long-term problems for about half of the people it affects.
  • Current treatment methods are based on how we treat lung tuberculosis, but they don't work as well for the brain.
  • Researchers are calling for new global trials with better drugs to improve treatment and help patients with this dangerous infection.
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Tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) frequently complicates combined antiretroviral therapy and antituberculosis therapy in HIV-1-coinfected tuberculosis patients. The immunopathological mechanisms underlying TB-IRIS are incompletely defined, and improved understanding is required to derive new treatments and to reduce associated morbidity and mortality. We performed longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of human PBMCs from paradoxical TB-IRIS patients and non-IRIS controls (HIV-TB-coinfected patients commencing antiretroviral therapy who did not develop TB-IRIS).

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The HIV-TB-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) can complicate combined treatments for HIV-1 and TB. Little is known about tissue damage in TB-IRIS. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) degrade components of the extracellular matrix and consequently may play a role in such immunopathology.

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Background: The interleukin 10 (IL-10) family comprises cytokines structurally related to IL-10 that share signaling receptors that have conserved signaling cascades. The immunopathogenesis of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and tuberculosis remains incompletely understood. We hypothesized that a deficiency of IL-10 and its homologs may contribute to the immunopathology of IRIS in these patients.

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Increased susceptibility to tuberculosis following HIV-1 seroconversion contributes significantly to the tuberculosis epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Lung-specific mechanisms underlying the interaction between HIV-1 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection are incompletely understood. Here we address these questions by examining the effect of HIV-1 and latent M.

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We have described a clinical relationship between HIV-Tuberculosis Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (TB-IRIS) and anti-tubercular drug resistance. Here we studied the immune response of TB-IRIS patients from whom a drug-resistant (n = 11) or drug-susceptible (n = 25) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strain was isolated after presenting with TB-IRIS. ELISpot analysis and multiplex cytokine analysis of the supernatant collected from peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated overnight with the heat-killed H37Rv MTB laboratory strain was used.

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Rationale: HIV-tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) is an immunopathological reaction to mycobacterial antigens induced by antiretroviral therapy. Prednisone reduces morbidity in TB-IRIS, but the mechanisms are unclear.

Objectives: To determine the effect of prednisone on the inflammatory response in TB-IRIS (antigen-specific effector T cells, cytokines, and chemokines).

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Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) can degrade all components of pulmonary extracellular matrix. Mycobacterium tuberculosis induces production of a number of these enzymes by human macrophages, and these are implicated in the pathogenesis of pulmonary cavitation in tuberculosis. The active metabolite of vitamin D, 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3)], has previously been reported to inhibit secretion of MMP-9 in human monocytes (MN), but its influence on the secretion and gene expression of MMP and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMP) in M.

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