Delayed gastrointestinal-associated lymphoid tissue reconstitution in duodenum compared with rectum in HIV-infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy.

Background: We aimed to characterize the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation on gastrointestinal-associated lymphoid tissue at various sites along the gastrointestinal site.

Methodology: Peripheral blood and duodenal and rectal biopsies were obtained from 12 HIV to 33 treatment-naive HIV participants at baseline and after 9 months ART. Tissue was digested for immunophenotyping.

Tissue Pharmacologic and Virologic Determinants of Duodenal and Rectal Gastrointestinal-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Immune Reconstitution in HIV-Infected Patients Initiating Antiretroviral Therapy.

Plasma, duodenal, and rectal tissue antiretroviral therapy (ART) drug concentrations, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA and HIV DNA copy numbers, and recovery of mucosal immunity were measured before and 9 months after initiation of 3 different ART regimens in 26 subjects. Plasma and tissue HIV RNA correlated at baseline and when 9-month declines were compared, suggesting that these compartments are tightly associated. Antiretroviral tissue:blood penetration ratios were above the 50% inhibitory concentration values in almost 100% of cases.

Correction: Effects of Combined CCR5/Integrase Inhibitors-Based Regimen on Mucosal Immunity in HIV-Infected Patients Naïve to Antiretroviral Therapy: A Pilot Randomized Trial.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.

Role of intestinal myofibroblasts in HIV-associated intestinal collagen deposition and immune reconstitution following combination antiretroviral therapy.

Objective: To investigate the potential role of mucosal intestinal myofibroblasts (IMFs) in HIV and associated fibrosis in gut-associated lymphoid tissue.

Design: Profibrotic changes within the secondary lymphoid organs and mucosa have been implicated in failed immune reconstitution following effective combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Microbial translocation is believed to be sustaining these systemic inflammatory pathways.

Arcanobacterium haemolyticum osteomyelitis and sepsis: a diagnostic conundrum.

Background: Arcanobacterium haemolyticum can cause severe systemic infections and sepsis. Thus, accurate and timely identification of the organism is essential.

Methods: Case report and review of the pertinent English-language literature.

Gastrointestinal-associated lymphoid tissue immune reconstitution in a randomized clinical trial of raltegravir versus non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based regimens.

Objectives: To examine immune restoration in duodenal tissue and correlates of reduction of immune activation in chronic HIV-infected patients randomized to different treatment regimens.

Design: Randomized clinical trial (RCT) comparing raltegravir to a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based regimen, both with fixed-dose tenofovir difumerate/emtricitabine.

Methods: Antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive volunteers underwent upper endoscopy for duodenal biopsies before and after 9 months of therapy.

Standardized comparison of the relative impacts of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) mutations on nucleoside RT inhibitor susceptibility.

Determining the phenotypic impacts of reverse transcriptase (RT) mutations on individual nucleoside RT inhibitors (NRTIs) has remained a statistical challenge because clinical NRTI-resistant HIV-1 isolates usually contain multiple mutations, often in complex patterns, complicating the task of determining the relative contribution of each mutation to HIV drug resistance. Furthermore, the NRTIs have highly variable dynamic susceptibility ranges, making it difficult to determine the relative effect of an RT mutation on susceptibility to different NRTIs. In this study, we analyzed 1,273 genotyped HIV-1 isolates for which phenotypic results were obtained using the PhenoSense assay (Monogram, South San Francisco, CA).

Lessons from maraviroc clinical trials.

Evaluation of: Gulick RM, Lalezari J, Goodrich J et al. Maraviroc for previously treated patients with R5 HIV-1 infection. N.

Molecular characterization of stool microbiota in HIV-infected subjects by panbacterial and order-level 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) quantification and correlations with immune activation.

Background: The relationship between gut microbial community composition at the higher-taxonomic order level and local and systemic immunologic abnormalities in HIV disease may provide insight into how bacterial translocation impacts HIV disease.

Methods: Antiretroviral-naive patients with HIV underwent upper endoscopy before and 9 months after starting antiretroviral treatment. Duodenal tissue was paraffin-embedded for immunohistochemical analysis and digested for fluorescence activated cell sorting for T-cell subsets and immune activation (CD38+/HLA-DR+) enumeration.