Impact of HIV-1 tropism on the emergence of non-AIDS events in HIV-infected patients receiving fully suppressive antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: The impact of HIV-1 tropism on the emergence of non-AIDS events was evaluated in a cohort of 116 antiretroviral therapy (ART) responder patients.

Methods: The patients were followed for the emergence of hypertension, renal impairment, metabolic and bone disorders (defined as non-AIDS events) each 8 weeks at standard visits. A V3 plasma sequence genotype analysis was performed at the time of ART initiation and the geno2pheno algorithm with the results that defines the false-positive rate (FPR) was used to infer HIV tropism.

Characterization of drug resistance mutations in naïve and ART-treated patients infected with HIV-1 in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Currently the prevalence of HIV-1 infection in Cameroon is 5.1%, CRF02_AG subtype is responsible for about 50% of infections. Since an HIV-1 drug resistance test is not yet available widely, accurate data on the prevalence of resistant viral strains are missing.

HIV-1 dual/mixed tropic isolates show different genetic and phenotypic characteristics and response to maraviroc in vitro.

Dual/mixed-tropic HIV-1 strains are predominant in a significative proportion of patients, though few information is available regarding the genetic characteristics, quasispecies composition, and susceptibility against CCR5-antagonists of the primary-isolates. For this reason, we investigated in deep details, both phenotypically and genotypically, the characteristics of 54 HIV-1 primary-isolates obtained from HIV-infected patients. Tropism was assessed by multiple-cycles phenotypic-assay on U87MG-CD4(+)-CCR5(+)-/CXCR4(+)-expressing cells.

KSHV DNA viremia correlates with low CD4+ cell count in Italian males at the time of diagnosis of HIV infection.

To evaluate the relevance and the virological and immunological markers of Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus 8 (KSHV) viremia in Italian male patients at the time of diagnosis of infection with HIV-1, 481 men infected with HIV were recruited consecutively. The presence of KSHV DNA was evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in plasma and correlated with demographic and viro-immunological parameters. Seventy-four patients had KSHV DNA detected in PBMCs.

Secondary integrase resistance mutations found in HIV-1 minority quasispecies in integrase therapy-naive patients have little or no effect on susceptibility to integrase inhibitors.

The goal of this study was to explore the presence of integrase strand transfer inhibitor (InSTI) resistance mutations in HIV-1 quasispecies present in InSTI-naïve patients and to evaluate their in vitro effects on phenotypic susceptibility to InSTIs and their replication capacities. The RT-RNase H-IN region was PCR amplified from plasma viral RNA obtained from 49 HIV-1 subtype B-infected patients (21 drug naïve and 28 failing highly active antiretroviral therapy [HAART] not containing InSTIs) and recombined with an HXB2-based backbone with RT and IN deleted. Recombinant viruses were tested against raltegravir and elvitegravir and for replication capacity.

Cellular HIV-1 DNA quantitation in patients during simplification therapy with protease inhibitor-sparing regimens.

Simplified regimens containing protease-inhibitors (PI)-sparing combinations were used in patients with virological suppression after prolonged highly active antiretroviral therapy. This study evaluated the total HIV-1 DNA quantitation as a predictor of long-term success for PI-sparing simplified therapy. Sixty-two patients were enrolled in a prospective non-randomized cohort.

In vitro fluconazole susceptibility of 1565 clinical isolates of Candida species evaluated by the disk diffusion method performed using NCCLS M44-A guidelines.

We determined the in vitro activity of fluconazole against 1565 clinical Candida spp. isolates collected from different specimens of non-AIDS outpatients and inpatients in 3 different regions of Italy. Susceptibility testing was performed by agar disk diffusion using the NCCLS document M44-A guidelines.

Viral growth assay to evaluate the replicative capacity of HIV-1 isolates.

The replicative capacity of HIV is studied by carrying out replication-competition experiments with the insertion of the gene of interest. These assays cannot capture the complicated patterns of mutations of different genes.A cross sectional study was carried out on 10 HIV-infected nai;ve patients and on 15 patients failing HAART.

[HIV and related infections in Italian penal institutions: epidemiological and health organization note].

HIV and other infections represent an important health problem in Italian jails. In particular, HIV prevalence is high, due to the characteristics of the prison population, which is constituted by a large proportion of injecting drug users and foreigners. In addition, data from other countries suggest that risky behaviour are not uncommon during imprisonment, and transmission of HIV and other infection in this setting may also occur.