Chinese Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-Associated Diarrhea: A Protocol for the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

Diarrhea can occur at an early or advanced stage of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS)as a usual symptom in people with human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)infection.While it is usually not fatal,it can influence patients’quality of life seriously.It has shown to be efficacious and improves people’s immune status to a certain extent to treat HIV/AIDS-related diarrhea on the basis of syndrome differentiation and treatment or Chinese herbs plus conventional treatment.Therefore,it may have a good application potential.Here,we outline a protocol for the systematic review of this health-care intervention,with the aim to evaluate the beneficial effects and safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)for patients who suffer from HIV/AIDS-associated diarrhea.Randomized controlled trials that compare Chinese herbs with placebo or other effective treatments will be searched and included,in spite of publication status or language.The primary outcomes include diarrhea frequency and fecal character.The databases we will search as follows:China Science and Technology Journal Database(VIP),Chinese Biomedical Literature Database(Sino Med),Wanfang Data,China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Pub Med and the CENTRAL in Cochrane Library.Two authors will respectively conduct the screening of trials,data extraction,and use the Cochrane risk of bias tool to assess the methodological quality.We will analyze the data and perform a meta-analysis if possible.We intend to identify potential therapeutic modalities that may be of benefit to inform clinical practice by supplying existing evidence of the helpful effects and safety of TCM to treat patients suffering from HIV/AIDS-associated diarrhea.

Retroviral integrase protein and intasome nucleoprotein complex structures

Retroviral replication proceeds through the integration of a DNA copy of the viral RNA genome into the host cellular genome, a process that is mediated by the viral integrase(IN) protein. IN catalyzes two distinct chemical reactions: 3'-processing, whereby the viral DNA is recessed by a di- or trinucleotide at its 3'-ends, and strand transfer, in which the processed viral DNA ends are inserted into host chromosomal DNA. Although IN has been studied as a recombinant protein since the 1980 s, detailed structural understanding of its catalytic functions awaited high resolution structures of functional IN-DNA complexes or intasomes, initially obtained in 2010 for the spumavirus prototype foamy virus(PFV). Since then, two additional retroviral intasome structures, from the α-retrovirus Rous sarcoma virus(RSV) and β-retrovirus mouse mammary tumor virus(MMTV), have emerged. Here, we briefly review the history of IN structural biology prior to the intasome era, and then compare the intasome structures of PFV, MMTV and RSV in detail. Whereas the PFV intasome is characterized by a tetrameric assembly of IN around the viral DNA ends, the newer structures harbor octameric IN assemblies. Although the higher order architectures of MMTV and RSV intasomes differ from that of the PFV intasome, they possess remarkably similar intasomal core structures. Thus, retroviral integration machineries have adapted evolutionarily to utilize disparate IN elements to construct convergent intasome core structures for catalytic function.

Testing Point of Care Portable Data Capture in a Hospital HIV Transmission Prevention Programme and Experience from Computerized Patient Management in a Sub-Saharan Clinic Setting

Clinicians involved in HIV/AIDS （Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome） prevention of mother to child transmission （PMTCT） programme and research activities can benefit from the advantages that computerized systems add to medical practice even in resource constrained sub-Saharan clinic settings. Their continued use of paper based systems presents clinical data management and patient care challenges. A portable point of care data capture electronic system and a computerized clinic patient management system （CCPMS） were implemented to remedy these challenges. PMTCT report compilation was easier with the portable data collection system whose data were found to be more complete and accurate with a 0.83% error rate compared to a 4.1% error rate in the paper registers. A resounding majority of clinicians preferred using the new CCPMS with many of the view that it improved drug inventory and general clinic management with a positive effect on patient care.

Genetic variation in the chemokine receptor 5 gene and course of HIV infection;review on genetics and immunological aspect

Chemokines are small protein molecules associated with various physiological events precisely in immune modulation via dhemokine receptors.The chemokine receptors are G-protein coupled receptors express mainly on the cell surface of immune cells.Retrovi-ruses,including HIV in the early stage of infection,primarily target chemokines receptors and get intemalized easily into immune cells;T cell and escape from immune surveillance.HIV glycoprotein selectively develops an affinity for the extracellular domain of chemokines recep-tors and allows the pathogen to intemalize via CCR-5.Now,CCR-5 remains a crucial signaling pathway that can be translated into the therapeutic target by changing the receptor protein environment.Many populations have a mutation in coding and promoter regions of CCR-5,tun-ing a resistance for HIV infection.Natively,there are several mechanisms where the human genome remains in the dynamic state by changing its composition and acquiring variations.Sin-gle nucleotide polymorphism is spontaneous phenomenon responsible for precise and point mutation at the genome.Several studies have demonstrated that European and African Amer-ican populations are enriched in significant CCR5 promoter SNP(CCR5432)in the coding and promoter region as well.Now,such SNP can be an early-stage biomarker in studying HIV and other similar infections.Here,in this study,we have elucidated the role of SNP(both the pro-moter and coding region)and the fate of HIV infections.We also empathized with the genetics of such SNPs,mostly frequency and its immunological impact.