Unusual metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinoma: analysis of 36 cases.

Purpose: Metastases of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in sites different from lungs and bone are unusual (UM); their impact in management and prognosis remains unknown. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence of UM, to describe their characteristics and to analyze their impact in disease outcome and mortality.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the file records from 8 different centers.

Yeast lysates carrying the nucleoprotein from measles virus vaccine as a novel subunit vaccine platform to deliver Plasmodium circumsporozoite antigen.

Background: Yeast cells represent an established bioreactor to produce recombinant proteins for subunit vaccine development. In addition, delivery of vaccine antigens directly within heat-inactivated yeast cells is attractive due to the adjuvancy provided by the yeast cell. In this study, Pichia pastoris yeast lysates carrying the nucleoprotein (N) from the measles vaccine virus were evaluated as a novel subunit vaccine platform to deliver the circumsporozoite surface antigen (CS) of Plasmodium.

HIV-1 derived peptides fused to HBsAg affect its immunogenicity.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface small antigen (HBsAg) self-assembles into virus-like particles (VLPs). HBsAg-based VLPs constitute a powerful vector for heterologous immunogenic peptides to develop a safe vaccine delivery system. HBV and the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are frequently associated in infection.

Oral administration of low doses of plant-based HBsAg induced antigen-specific IgAs and IgGs in mice, without increasing levels of regulatory T cells.

Plant-based oral vaccines run the risk of activating regulatory T cells (Tregs) and suppressing the antigen-specific immune response via oral tolerance. Mice humanized for two HLA alleles (HLA-A2.1 and HLA-DR1) were used to measure changes in Tregs and antigen-specific immune responses induced by the oral administration of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), expressing the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).

Immunogenicity and tolerance following HIV-1/HBV plant-based oral vaccine administration.

Transgenic tobacco plants expressing a HIV-1 polyepitope associated with hepatitis B (HBV) virus-like particles (VLPs) were previously described. It is demonstrated here that oral administration of these transgenic plants to humanized HSB mice to boost DNA-priming can elicit anti-HIV-1 specific CD8+ T cell activation detectable in mesenteric lymph nodes. Nevertheless, a significant regulatory T cell activation was induced in vivo by the vaccination protocols.

Frequency of pancreatic beta-cell autoimmunity markers in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease.

A total of 305 ambulatory patients recruited at the Division of Endocrinology, Hospital de Clínicas, University of Buenos Aires, with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) were studied to search for associations between autoimmune thyroid disease and presence of serum markers of autoimmune diabetes mellitus. Screening for markers of pancreatic beta-cell autoimmunity was performed by radioligand binding assays (RBA) as follows: autoantibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GADA) and proinsulin (PAA) were determined in all sera, whereas autoantibodies to protein tyrosine phosphatase (IA-2A) and insulin (IAA) were additionally measured in 200 sera randomly selected from the total collection. In addition, every GADA positive serum among the remaining 105 sera was systematically tested for the presence of IA-2A and IAA.

Production of recombinant HIV-1/HBV virus-like particles in Nicotiana tabacum and Arabidopsis thaliana plants for a bivalent plant-based vaccine.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) spread via similar transmission pathways, and infection by HBV occurs in up to 32% of HIV-1 cases. Here, we describe the successful expression of novel recombinant HIV-1/HBV virus-like particles (VLPs) in Nicotiana tabacum and Arabidopsis thaliana. The production levels and quality of the recombinant VLPs were comparable in the two plants, showing that parameters intrinsic to the recombinant proteins determined their assembly into VLPs.

Occult traumatic pneumothorax: diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasonography in the emergency department.

Background: The role of chest ultrasonography (US) in the diagnosis of pneumothorax (PTX) has been established, but how it compares with lung CT scanning in the diagnosis of radiooccult PTX and in the determination of its topographic extension has not yet been completely evaluated.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of chest US in the emergency department (ED) in the diagnosis of occult PTX in trauma patients and to define its ability to determine PTX extension.

Design: An 18-month prospective study.

In HIV-1 pathogenesis the die is cast during primary infection.

The chronic stage of HIV-1 infection has been extensively described as a slowly evolving phase, in which the virus induces T-cell death slightly faster than the human body is able to recover. In contrast, T-cell and viral replication dynamics during primary infection have been less well studied. Recent studies in the SIV-macaque model and in HIV-positive patients during the acute infection period have highlighted the massive and irreversible depletion of CD4 memory T cells in the mucosa, particularly in the gut.

Optimisation of secretion of recombinant HBsAg virus-like particles: Impact on the development of HIV-1/HBV bivalent vaccines.

The hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) assembles into virus-like particles (VLPs) that can be used as carrier of immunogenic peptides for the development of bivalent vaccine candidates. It is shown here that by respecting certain qualitative features of mammalian preS1 and preS2 protein domains upstream of HBsAg, foreign sequences can be inserted in their place while maintaining efficient secretion of VLPs. A polyepitope bearing HIV-1 epitopes restricted to the HLA-A*0201 class I allele was optimised for secretion as an HBsAg fusion protein by counterbalancing the generally hydrophobic class I epitopes with hydrophilic spacers, eliminating epitopes bearing cysteine residues, limiting the number of internal methionine residues to a minimum and adopting Homo sapiens codon usage.

The HIV-1 clade C promoter is particularly well adapted to replication in the gut in primary infection.

Objective: Coinfection of rhesus macaques with human/simian immunodeficiency virus chimeras harbouring the minimal core-promoter/enhancer elements from HIV-1 clade B, C and E viral prototypes (STR-B, STR-C and STR-E) revealed a remarkable dichotomy in terms of spatio-temporal viral replication. The clade C chimera (STR-C) predominated in primary infection. The present study was aimed at identifying the origin of STR-C plasma viraemia at this infection phase.

Clade-specific differences in active viral replication and compartmentalization.

Purpose Of Review: This review focuses on the impact of HIV-1 clade-specific polymorphisms on the dynamics of viral replication and compartmentalization in vivo.

Recent Findings: HIV-1 transcription and compartmentalization are essentially modulated by interconnected parameters: cellular activation by T-cell receptor engagement or cytokine signalling in different tissues, and viral polymorphisms in the long terminal repeat and Tat protein. Moreover, the gut-associated lymphoid tissue plays a central role in HIV-1 pathogenesis.

HIV-1 clade promoters strongly influence spatial and temporal dynamics of viral replication in vivo.

Although the primary determinant of cell tropism is the interaction of viral envelope or capsid proteins with cellular receptors, other viral elements can strongly modulate viral replication. While the HIV-1 promoter is polymorphic for a variety of transcription factor binding sites, the impact of these polymorphisms on viral replication in vivo is not known. To address this issue, we engineered isogenic SIVmac239 chimeras harboring the core promoter/enhancer from HIV-1 clades B, C, and E.

Epidemiology of palpable goiter in greater Buenos Aires, an iodine-sufficient area [corrected].

The Hospital de Clínicas organized a free program of goiter detection by palpation. This campaign was aimed at the population of the metropolitan area of Greater Buenos Aires (11 million inhabitants), with the prerequisite that each participant should be quite unaware whether he/she was a carrier of any thyroid disease. Attendees were split into two groups, i.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients: absence of correlation between JC virus neurovirulence and polymorphisms in the transcriptional control region and the major capsid protein loci.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rapidly fatal demyelinating disease of the central nervous system related to JC polyomavirus (JCV) replication in oligodendrocytes. PML usually occurs in immunocompromised individuals, especially in the setting of AIDS. Administration of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) may improve survival prognosis in some, but not all, patients with AIDS-related PML.

Manganese cations increase the mutation rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 ex vivo.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcription is an error-prone process with an overall mutation rate of approximately 3.4 x 10(-5) per base per replication cycle. This rate can be modulated by changes in different components of the retrotranscription reaction.