Measuring the uptake of clinic-based HIV treatment and prevention services following HIV testing and referral at private pharmacies in Kenya.

Background: Despite their ubiquity across sub-Saharan Africa, private pharmacies are underutilized for HIV service delivery beyond the sale of HIV self-test kits. To understand what uptake of HIV prevention and treatment services might look like if private pharmacies offered clients free HIV self-testing and referral to clinic-based HIV services, we conducted a pilot study in Kenya.

Methods: At 20 private pharmacies in Kisumu County, Kenya, pharmacy clients (≥ 18 years) purchasing sexual health-related products (e.

Optimising bronchoalveolar lavage: lessons from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Background: Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is essential in determining the efficacy of novel therapies in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). These require initial proof-of-concept demonstration that treatment administration increases alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) levels and/or anti-neutrophil elastase inhibitory capacity (ANEC) in the lung. Early-phase studies often encounter high interindividual variability of BAL results, primarily stemming from the inherent dilution characteristics of returned BAL fluid.

A platform of ADAPTive scaffolds: development of CDR-H3 β-hairpin mimics into covalent inhibitors of the PD1/PDL1 immune checkpoint.

Aberrant and dysregulated protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive a significant number of human diseases, which is why they represent a major class of targets in drug discovery. Although a number of high-affinity antibody-based drugs have emerged in this therapeutic space, the discovery of smaller PPI inhibitors is lagging far behind, underscoring the need for novel scaffold modalities. To bridge this gap, we introduce a biomimetic platform technology - adaptive design of antibody paratopes into therapeutics () - that enables the paratope-forming binding loops of antibodies to be crafted into large β-hairpin scaffolds ().

Iron load in the normal aging brain measured with QSM and at 7T: findings of the SENIOR cohort.

Background: Iron accumulates in the brain during aging and is the focus of intensive research as an abnormal load, particularly in Deep Gray Matter (DGM), is related to neurodegeneration. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) metrics such as Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) and apparent transverse relaxation rate can be used to follow up iron . While the influence of age and sex on iron levels has already been reported, a careful consideration of neuronal risk factors, as well as for an enhanced sensitivity, is needed to define the normal evolution.