Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections including HIV in street-connected adolescents in western Kenya.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to characterise the sexual health of street-connected adolescents in Eldoret, Kenya, analyse gender disparity of risks, estimate the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and identify factors associated with STIs.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of street-connected adolescents ages 12-21 years was conducted in Eldoret, Kenya. Participants were interviewed and screened for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis, herpes simplex virus-2, syphilis and HIV.

Evaluation of longitudinal clinical outcomes and adherence to care among HIV-infected refugees.

Background: HIV-infected refugees resettled in the United States face many challenges. Longitudinal data regarding HIV-specific outcomes in this population are limited.

Methods: We reviewed charts of 51 HIV-infected sub-Saharan African refugees matched to 102 nonrefugees.

Evidence that the adaptation region of the aspartate receptor is a dynamic four-helix bundle: cysteine and disulfide scanning studies.

The aspartate receptor is one of the ligand-specific, homodimeric chemoreceptors that detects extracellular attractants and triggers the chemotaxis pathway of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. This receptor regulates the activity of the histidine kinase CheA, which forms a kinetically stable complex with the receptor cytoplasmic domain. An atomic four-helix bundle model has been constructed for this domain, which is functionally subdivided into the signaling and adaptation subdomains.

Tumor promoter-induced MMP-13 gene expression in a model of initiated epidermis.

In mouse epidermis in vivo, the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) increases gene expression of matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13), an enzyme implicated in carcinogenesis. Here we used a keratinocyte cell line (308) derived from initiated mouse skin to investigate TPA-induced MMP-13 gene expression. Use of a pharmacological inhibitor (U0126) demonstrated that extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) plays a major role in TPA-induced MMP-13 gene expression.

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase transmits palytoxin-stimulated signals leading to altered gene expression in mouse keratinocytes.

We have been probing the molecular mechanisms of tumor promoters that stimulate distinct initial signals to define critical downstream biochemical events in carcinogenesis. The action of the novel skin tumor promoter palytoxin on signaling and gene expression in keratinocytes, the primary target cells of tumor promoters, was therefore investigated. Palytoxin stimulated an increase in mRNA for matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13), an enzyme implicated in carcinogenesis, in a keratinocyte cell line derived from initiated mouse skin (308).