Viral susceptibility and innate immune competency of bat cells produced for virological studies.

Multiple viruses that are highly pathogenic in humans are known to have evolved in bats. How bats tolerate infection with these viruses, however, is poorly understood. As viruses engage in a wide range of interactions with their hosts, it is essential to study bat viruses in a system that resembles their natural environment like bat-derived cellular models.

Human T1 and T2 cells targeting rhinovirus and allergen coordinately promote allergic asthma.

Background: Allergic asthmatic subjects are uniquely susceptible to acute wheezing episodes provoked by rhinovirus. However, the underlying immune mechanisms and interaction between rhinovirus and allergy remain enigmatic, and current paradigms are controversial.

Objective: We sought to perform a comprehensive analysis of type 1 and type 2 innate and adaptive responses in allergic asthmatic subjects infected with rhinovirus.

Is the New Heroin Epidemic Really New? Racializing Heroin.

Heroin abuse as an outcome of the prior use of painkillers increased rapidly over the past decade. This "new epidemic" is unique because the new heroin users are primarily young White Americans in rural areas of virtually every state. This commentary argues that the painkiller-to-heroin transition could not be the only cause of heroin use on such a scale and that the new and old heroin epidemics are linked.

Wheezing exacerbations in early childhood: evaluation, treatment, and recent advances relevant to the genesis of asthma.

Children who begin wheezing during early childhood are frequently seen by health care providers in primary care, in hospitals, and in emergency departments, and by allergists and pulmonologists. When a young child, such as the 2 year-old patient presented here, is evaluated for wheezing, a frequent challenge for clinicians is to determine whether the symptoms represent transient, viral-induced wheezing or whether sufficient risk factors are present to suspect that the child may experience recurrent wheezing and develop asthma. Most factors that influence prognosis are not mutually exclusive, are interrelated (ie, cofactors), and often represent gene-environment interactions.

Quality improvement methods improve inhaled corticosteroid prescribing in the emergency department.

Objective: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are underutilized among persistent asthmatics. Because of low outpatient follow-up rates after Emergency Department (ED) visits, children are unlikely to be prescribed ICS by their primary care physician after an acute exacerbation. ED physicians have the opportunity to contribute to the delivery of preventive care in the acute care setting.

Parental education on asthma severity in the emergency department and primary care follow-up rates.

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic condition affecting children and a common chief complaint in emergency departments (EDs). We aimed to improve parents' understanding of their child's asthma severity on accessing our pediatric ED for an acute asthma exacerbation. A retrospective chart review was conducted to determine outpatient follow-up rates from our ED in 2010-2011.

Drug treatment clients and their community peers: how they differ.

Free-at-Last is a drug treatment program in East Palo Alto, California, a low-income predominantly African American community in Silicon Valley. In this research, a cohort of treatment clients was compared to a random sample of community residents. Both groups used drugs.

The successful DNA typing of samples following a thermal cycler power loss.

An approach for generating DNA profiles when critical samples have been consumed and a power outage occurs during the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification reaction is described. This study demonstrates that a complete and accurate DNA short tandem repeat profile can be obtained: (1) when single source DNA samples are amplified for 26, 27, or 28 cycles using the Profiler Plus and COfiler Amplification Kits after an interruption in amplification, (2) from mock samples when PCR amplification has been interrupted early (after five cycles) or late (after 18 cycles) and the sample is subjected to an additional round of amplification, even after incubation of the sample at room temperature overnight, and (3) from nonprobative casework samples interrupted after approximately 18 cycles of amplification, an overnight incubation at room temperature and subjected to one or two additional rounds of PCR amplification for approximately 26 total cycles. Samples interrupted before five completed cycles and subjected to additional PCR cycles yielded variable results.

Comparison of HIV infection risk behaviors among injection drug users from East and West Coast US cities.

This study assessed whether behavioral differences explained higher human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroprevalence among injection drug users (IDUs) in three East Coast versus two West Coast cities in the United States. Sociodemographic, sexual, and injecting information were collected during semiannual face-to-face interviews. Baseline data from New York City; Baltimore, Maryland; and New Haven, Connecticut, were compared with data from Los Angeles, California, and San Jose, California.

Death in the family and HIV risk-taking among intravenous drug users.

The objective of this study was to ascertain the relationship among intravenous drug users between high levels of HIV risk-taking and both (a) deaths of significant others experienced before age 15, and (b) unresolved mourning; 592 out-of-treatment intravenous drug users (71.4% male; mean age = 40.5), stratified as to zip code, were recruited in San Jose, CA, as part of a CDC multisite investigation of access to sterile needles and HIV infection.

The high-risk sexual practices of crack-smoking sex workers recruited from the streets of three American cities. The Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

Background And Objectives: Small ethnographic and clinic-based studies indicate that crack-smoking sex workers are at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

Study Goals: To examine the prevalence of risky sexual behaviors and HIV and STD in a large sample of street-recruited crack-smoking sex workers.

Study Design: From 1991 to 1992, 419 crack-smoking sex workers were recruited from urban neighborhoods, interviewed, and serologically tested.

Background to crack cocaine addiction and HIV high-risk behavior: the next epidemic.

Background: Increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases among users of noninjection drugs prompt speculation that crack cocaine users who do not inject are at particularly high risk of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection.

Methods: A street recruitment technique was employed to enroll 331 primarily African-American men aged 18-29 in an area of San Francisco where crack cocaine is sold openly. One-half were regular crack users and the other half had never used the drug.

Summary of validation studies from twenty-six forensic laboratories in the United States and Canada on the use of the AmpliType PM PCR amplification and typing kit.

A cooperative study was undertaken to collect and summarize the results of validation studies from forensic laboratories in the United States and Canada on the use of the AmpliType PM PCR amplification and typing kit for genetic typing of forensic biological evidence. This report compiles data from 26 laboratories on: 1) reproducibility studies on DNA extracted from various samples, 2) genetic typing of DNA extracted from a variety of biological samples on various substrates, 3) the effects of exogenous chemicals, materials, and environmental factors on test results, 4) sensitivity studies to determine the least detectable amount of extracted genomic DNA that can be reliably typed, 5) analysis of mixtures containing two sources of genomic DNA, 6) cross-hybridization with DNA extracted from various nonhuman species, and 7) evaluation of assay performance on parallel studies with other genetic typing systems on proficiency test panels, mock cases, and adjudicated/nonprobative casework. Equivalent results were obtained by each laboratory that supplied data, demonstrating the reliability and consistency of the test.

Crack cocaine smokers who turn to drug injection: characteristics, factors associated with injection, and implications for HIV transmission. The Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

A survey of 1220 street-recruited crack cocaine smokers revealed that crack smokers may turn to drug injection to ease crack withdrawal. Crack smokers who later injected tended to smoke crack more heavily and for longer periods than those who did not inject. The initiation of injection was significantly associated with ever snorting heroin (prevalence ratio [PR] = 3.

Crack cocaine smoking and oral sores in three inner-city neighborhoods.

Crack cocaine causes blisters, sores, and cuts on the lips and in the mouths of persons who smoke it, and such sores may facilitate the oral transmission of HIV. We recruited young adults aged 18-29 years, who either were current regular crack smokers, or who had never smoked crack, from inner city neighborhoods in New York, Miami, and San Francisco. Participants were interviewed for HIV risk behaviors and history of recent oral sores and were tested for HIV, syphilis, and herpes simplex virus (HSV) antibodies.

The developmental implications of prenatal and/or postnatal crack cocaine exposure in preschool children: a preliminary report.

Previous studies examining the development of prenatally cocaine-exposed children through 3 years of age have found no significant differences between exposed and control groups. This study explored the developmental correlates of prenatal and/or postnatal crack cocaine exposure in children between 4 and 6 years of age. Three groups were studied: Group 1, 18 prenatally-exposed children whose mothers continue to use crack; Group II, 28 children without prenatal exposure whose mothers presently use crack; and Group III, 28 children whose mothers never used crack.

Urban rape survivors: characteristics and prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus and other sexually transmitted infections. Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of recent rape, the characteristics or recent rape survivors, and the seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), syphilis, and genital herpes (HSV-2) among recent rape survivors.

Methods: We surveyed women 18-29 years old who were recruited from places unassociated with medical or drug treatment or the criminal justice system in three urban communities where illicit drug use is common. We compared characteristics and HIV, syphilis, and HSV-2 seroprevalence of women who reported recent rape with those of women who denied recent rape.

Intersecting epidemics--crack cocaine use and HIV infection among inner-city young adults. Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

Background And Methods: The smoking of "crack" cocaine is thought to be associated with high-risk sexual practices that accelerate the spread of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We studied 2323 young adults, 18 to 29 years of age, who smoked crack regularly or who had never smoked crack. The study participants, recruited from the streets of inner-city neighborhoods in New York, Miami, and San Francisco, were interviewed and tested for HIV.

High-risk sex behavior among young street-recruited crack cocaine smokers in three American cities: an interim report. The Multicenter Crack Cocaine and HIV Infection Study Team.

Since crack cocaine appeared in urban areas in the United States in the mid-1980s, reports have suggested that crack smokers may be at increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including infection with HIV, because they have multiple sex partners, trade sex for money or drugs, and rarely use condoms. A cross-sectional survey is being conducted in urban neighborhoods in Miami, New York and San Francisco--where crack use is common--to explore these issues. Indigenous street outreach workers are recruiting men and women who are either current regular crack smokers or who have never smoked crack; each group is further stratified according to whether participants had ever injected drugs.

Isolation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from saliva and forensic science samples containing saliva.

Saliva and saliva-stained materials were examined as potential sources of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for DNA analysis and identity testing. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that DNA was isolated and DNA banding patterns suitable for DNA typing were obtained from fresh saliva and various saliva-stained materials, such as envelopes, buccal swabs, gags, and cigarettes. Furthermore, DNA and DNA banding patterns were obtained from actual forensic evidentiary samples containing mixed saliva/semen stains.

Immunoglobulin D switching can occur through homologous recombination in human B cells.

Prototypical class switching in mouse and human immunoglobulin heavy chains occurs through recombination of tandem blocks of short repeats located 5' to each heavy chain constant region (CH) except C delta. Deletion of C mu in immunoglobulin D (IgD)-secreting murine plasmacytomas occurs illegitimately. We demonstrate here that in human IgD-secreting myeloma cells freshly isolated from patient bone marrow and in normal peripheral blood B lymphocytes, an IgD switch can occur through homologous recombination of a direct repeat consisting of a 442-bp sequence 1.