Shortening the decade-long gap between adult and paediatric drug formulations: a new framework based on the HIV experience in low- and middle-income countries.

Introduction: Despite the coordinated efforts by several stakeholders to speed up access to HIV treatment for children, development of optimal paediatric formulations still lags 8 to 10 years behind that of adults, due mainly to lack of market incentives and technical complexities in manufacturing. The small and fragmented paediatric market also hinders launch and uptake of new formulations. Moreover, the problems affecting HIV similarly affect other disease areas where development and introduction of optimal paediatric formulations is even slower.

Can the generic antiretroviral industry support access to a universal antiretroviral regimen?

Purpose Of Review: The generic antiretroviral (ARV) industry played a critical role in the massive scale-up of HIV treatment in low-income and middle-income countries since 2000. As the global community looks ahead to a universal antiretroviral regimen, this article considers the industry's role in supporting universal access to affordable, simpler, more durable, and tolerable HIV treatment regimens.

Recent Findings: Generic manufacturers made treatment scale-up in low-income and middle-income countries possible through reducing prices, combining molecules from different originator companies to develop optimal fixed-dose combinations, and investing in production capacity to meet escalating demand.

A cost-savings analysis of a candidate universal antiretroviral regimen.

Purpose Of Review: Despite significant strides in tackling HIV/AIDS in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), many treatment shortcomings remain, with limited drug selection to patients emerging as a critical challenge. The potential cost-savings benefits of adopting newer drugs as near-universal first-line antiretroviral (ARV) regimens that also provide improved clinical outcomes are discussed.

Recent Findings: In the near term, a fixed-dose combination of dolutegravir (DTG or D) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), and either lamivudine or emtricitabine (XTC), that is, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/XTC/DTG (TXD) (X = XTC), could represent a near-universal first-line antiretroviral regimen offering significant clinical benefit, commodity savings, and overall health system savings.

Aneuploidy affects proliferation and spontaneous immortalization in mammalian cells.

Aneuploidy, an incorrect number of chromosomes, is the leading cause of miscarriages and mental retardation in humans and is a hallmark of cancer. We examined the effects of aneuploidy on primary mouse cells by generating a series of cell lines that carry an extra copy of one of four mouse chromosomes. In all four trisomic lines, proliferation was impaired and metabolic properties were altered.

Kinetochore orientation during meiosis is controlled by Aurora B and the monopolin complex.

Kinetochores of sister chromatids attach to microtubules emanating from the same pole (coorientation) during meiosis I and microtubules emanating from opposite poles (biorientation) during meiosis II. We find that the Aurora B kinase Ipl1 regulates kinetochore-microtubule attachment during both meiotic divisions and that a complex known as the monopolin complex ensures that the protein kinase coorients sister chromatids during meiosis I. Furthermore, the defining of conditions sufficient to induce sister kinetochore coorientation during mitosis provides insight into monopolin complex function.