Shared and unique antibody and B cell profiles in HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals with cryptococcal meningoencephalitis.

Host non-T cell markers to aid in the diagnosis of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis (CM) have not been identified. In this case-control study, we characterized antibody and B cell profiles in HIV-negative and HIV-positive Vietnamese individuals of the Kinh ethnicity recently diagnosed with CM and controls. The study included 60 HIV-negative with no known immunocompromising condition and 60 HIV-positive individuals, with 30 CM cases and 30 controls in each group.

Disaster risk management system in Vietnam: progress and challenges.

Background: Vietnam is one of the countries most impacted by disasters in Asia- Pacific. Floods, droughts and storms are the most common catastrophes. These risks endanger millions of lives and create massive financial and production losses.

An open label randomized controlled trial of tamoxifen combined with amphotericin B and fluconazole for cryptococcal meningitis.

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis has high mortality. Flucytosine is a key treatment but is expensive and rarely available. The anticancer agent tamoxifen has synergistic anti-cryptococcal activity with amphotericin in vitro.

Antifungal Susceptibility Does Not Correlate With Fungal Clearance or Survival in AIDS-Associated Cryptococcal Meningitis.

We investigated the value of susceptibility testing in predicting response in AIDS-associated cryptococcal meningitis using clinical isolates from a randomized controlled trial of antifungal treatment (amphotericin monotherapy, amphotericin with flucytosine, or amphotericin with fluconazole). We found no correlation between antifungal susceptibility and either early or late survival, or fungal clearance.

Inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) plays for AvrRpt2-triggered immunity and RIN4 cleavage in Arabidopsis under endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.

Many stresses induce the accumulation of unfolded and misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, a phenomenon known as ER stress. In response to ER stress, cells initiate a protective response, known as unfolded protein response (UPR), to maintain cellular homeostasis. The UPR sensor, inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), catalyzes the cytoplasmic splicing of bZIP transcription factor-encoding mRNAs to activate the UPR signaling pathway.

The combination of tamoxifen with amphotericin B, but not with fluconazole, has synergistic activity against the majority of clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans.

Background: Cryptococcal meningitis has fatality rates of 40%-70%, resulting in 200 000 deaths each year. The best outcomes are achieved with amphotericin combined with flucytosine but flucytosine is expensive and unavailable where most disease occurs. More effective and affordable treatments are needed.

Comparative genomics of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii associated with meningitis in HIV infected and uninfected patients in Vietnam.

The vast burden of cryptococcal meningitis occurs in immunosuppressed patients, driven by HIV, and is caused by Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii. We previously reported cryptococcal meningitis in Vietnam arising atypically in HIV uninfected, apparently immunocompetent patients, caused by a single amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) cluster of C.