Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0021051 (immunodeficiency)
 71,517 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A clinical and post mortem survey of domestic and feral cats in the Glasgow area revealed that 19 of 235 (8.1 per cent) were infected with Cryptosporidium species. More kittens than adults were infected (P less than 0.01), and of 51 of the cats which had diarrhoea, four also had cryptosporidium infection. Of seven domestic cats with cryptosporidium infection, two were also positive for feline immunodeficiency virus. There was no significant difference between the prevalence of cryptosporidium infection in domestic and feral cats. Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in faecal and mucosal impression smears stained with auramine-phenol and modified Ziehl-Nielsen techniques. Endogenous developmental stages of cryptosporidium were found in the microvillus region of enterocytes of eight of 19 positive cats in sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin. The results suggest that cryptosporidium infection is common among young and newborn kittens, and that the disease is usually asymptomatic.
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PMID:Cryptosporidium infection in cats: prevalence of infection in domestic and feral cats in the Glasgow area. 166 51

Phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (S-ODNs) have potential as anti-viral agents and are being investigated for the chemotherapy of AIDS. A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the analysis, in urine and plasma, of a 28-unit deoxycytidine homopolymer (S-dC28) and a 28-unit S-ODN "antisense" to the rev gene of the human immunodeficiency virus. This method employs ion-pairing HPLC with a polymeric column. Tetrabutylammonium is used as the ion-pairing agent in a mobile phase of acetonitrile in pH 7.0 phosphate buffer. Analysis of the S-ODNs is relatively rapid (20 min) and sensitive (20 nm) and is accomplished by a gradient elution (22.5-30.0% acetonitrile) followed by ultraviolet (266 or 272 nm) absorption detection. This method is likely applicable, with appropriate modifications, to all S-ODNs of similar molecular weight regardless of sequence. The S-ODNs bind very strongly to plasma proteins but are readily prepared for analysis by a phenol extraction procedure. In a preliminary pharmacokinetic study in mice with S-dC28, very rapid elimination of the oligomer from plasma was observed (half-time, 11.6 min). Estimates for the apparent volume of distribution and total body clearance were 3 ml and 0.2 ml/min, respectively. It appears that the majority of the oligomer is eliminated by renal clearance (glomerular filtration), a property likely shared by all S-ODNs of similar molecular mass.
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PMID:High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of phosphorothioate analogues of oligodeoxynucleotides in biological fluids. 208 59

Mice were given single injections of sheep erythrocytes (SE) or polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at various times after sublethal, whole-body irradiation (550 rad 60CO) and direct, antigen-specific, plaque-forming cell (PFC) responses were quantified. Irradiated mice did not respond to SE or PVP when immunized 15 d postirradiation (PI); by day 30 PI, the responses by irradiated mice were 40-126% of normal to SE and 3-38% of normal to PVP. The impaired recovery after irradiation of immune responses to PVP was not due to altered antigen dose requirements or altered time of peak PFC response and occurred after irradiation of mice by doses as low as 200 rad. Both athymic and euthymic mice had impaired responses to PVP after whole-body irradiation. The impaired response of irradiated mice to PVP was repaired by adoptive transfer of normal bone marrow, fetal liver, or spleen cells and also by spleen cell preparations enriched in Ig+ cells but not by spleen cell preparations enriched in Thy.1+ or Ig- cells. With the aid of additional antigens it was observed that by day 30 PI, mice had recovered ability to respond to the T-cell-dependent antigen SE and the T-cell-independent type-1 antigens 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-Brucella abortus and butanol-extracted bacterial lipopolysaccharide, but at that time they gave impaired responses to the T-cell-independent type-2 antigens PVP, type III pneumococcal polysaccharide, and phenol-extracted bacterial lipopolysaccharide; they had an immune response pattern similar to that of CBA/N mice having an X-linked immunodeficiency.
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PMID:Differential recovery of antibody production potential after sublethal, whole-body irradiation of mice. 352 64

The immunomodulatory action of a nontoxic monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and a toxic diphosphoryl lipid A (DPL) fraction derived from endotoxins of the heptoseless mutants of bacteria were studied. Both derivatives retained the ability characteristic of lipopolysaccharides, i.e., to enhance antibody formation in young adult mice when injected along with antigen and suppress antibody production when given 1 day before antigen. In aging mice, a model of immunodeficiency, a marked restoration of antibody formation was observed when antigen was injected together with either MPL or DPL. Levels of antibody in the aging mice became comparable with those observed in young adult mice. Moreover, both MPL and DPL enhanced antibody production significantly in the endotoxin low-responder mouse strains C3H/HeJ and C57Bl/10 ScN, whereas phenol-water-extracted endotoxin from an Rd mutant was ineffective. MPL and DPL also acted as suppressive agents when administered prior to antigen in the C3H/HeJ strain. Thus, the results from these studies show that the toxic properties of lipid A can be removed without eliminating immunomodulating activity and certain forms of lipid A can overcome the immunologic lesions of immunodeficient and hyporesponsive animals.
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PMID:The adjuvant properties of a nontoxic monophosphoryl lipid A in hyporesponsive and aging mice. 358 13

A reverse passive hemagglutination (RPH) assay was developed for Cryptosporidium oocyst antigen with an antioocyst monoclonal antibody (MAb; MAb-C1) coupled to stabilized sheep erythrocytes. RPH was compared with microscopy of auramine-phenol-stained smears of 56 oocyst-positive fecal samples, each of which was tested blindly by RPH with two oocyst-negative samples received on the same day (a total of 112 controls). Thirty-nine additional fecal samples from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody-positive patients with diarrhea (10 of which were positive in auramine-phenol-stained smears) were stored at -20 degrees C before testing. Thirty specimens with a variety of other fecal pathogens (all negative for oocysts) were also tested. Of the 237 samples tested, 69 were positive by one or both methods: 65 by RPH and 66 by microscopy. The kappa coefficient of agreement between the methods was very high at 0.926. The sensitivity of RPH was 93.9%, the specificity was 98.2%, the positive predictive value was 95.4%, and the negative predictive value was 97.7%. Visible oocyst numbers and RPH titers were measured after storage of fecal samples and oocyst concentrates for 8 days at 4 degrees C. Oocyst morphology was generally poor in specimens from the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody-positive group, and it degenerated during the 8-day storage experiments. MAb-C1-reactive antigen eluted from oocysts to give progressively higher reciprocal titers during storage, and it was partially removed from the oocysts by concentration. RPH is a promising technique for the detection of Cryptosporidium antigen in human feces and may be useful when specimens are stored before testing. Studies of the sensitivity of Cryptosporidium immunoassays should take into account the possible release of antigen from oocysts.
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PMID:Cryptosporidium antigen detection in human feces by reverse passive hemagglutination assay. 765 Feb 18

Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 34 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 28 patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) were analyzed. As controls, 116 samples were evaluated from 82 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients and 1 HIV-1-negative patient. Of the HIV-1-positive patients, 23 had cerebral toxoplasmosis, 10 had HIV leukoencephalopathy, and 49 had other neurologic complications. Detection of JC virus (JCV) DNA in CSF was increased 10-fold by the addition of carrier DNA before phenol-chloroform-isoamyl alcohol extraction. The primer pair JC 26/29, from the VP1/large T region, had a limit of detection of 10(5) JCV DNA molecules/100 microL. The primer pair JC 36/39, located in the large T gene region, had a 100-fold lower limit of detection. With JC 26/29, the sensitivity was 43% (12/28) and specificity was 100%. Using JC 36/39, sensitivity increased to 82% (23/28), and false-positive results were not observed. Diagnosis of PML is greatly aided by PCR analysis of CSF.
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PMID:Specific diagnosis of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy by polymerase chain reaction. 816 9

The higher susceptibility to serious bacterial infections of patients, particularly children, infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may be due in part to defective function of their phagocytic cells. We examined the ability of polymorphonuclear cells and monocytes of HIV-infected children and adults to generate superoxide anion (SO) and hydrogen peroxide (HP) and compared it with that of cells from normal children and adults. SO was measured by reduction of cytochrome c and HP by horseradish peroxidase-dependent oxidation of phenol red. The cells were incubated in 96-well plates at 37 degrees C for 2 h before the assay and the nonadherent cells then removed. Readings for SO were taken at 10, 30, 60, and 120 min after stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate; HP production was assayed after 90 min. The SO and HP production by polymorphonuclear cells and monocytes from both HIV-infected children and adults was consistently found to be markedly lower than that of cells from age-matched controls. The magnitude of the difference in response between patients and control cells also increased with increasing incubation time. Thus, phagocytic cells from HIV-infected children and adults are defective in their ability to generate reactive oxygen intermediates, and this defect may make them more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections.
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PMID:Decreased superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide production by neutrophils and monocytes in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children and adults. 825 91

Detection of Pneumocystis carinii by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), based on the thymidylate synthase (TS) gene of rat P. carinii, is a specific and sensitive method for the detection of the parasite in respiratory samples. However, the use of the method is limited by a laborious phenol-chloroform DNA extraction method and an expensive and time-consuming hybridization procedure. For routine clinical samples, DNA preparation can be simplified and hybridization substituted by a nested PCR technique. Such a modified PCR procedure, based on the TS gene of P. carinii, was evaluated on 190 induced sputum samples from 50 immunosuppressed patients, infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with and without symptoms of P. carinii pneumonia (PCP). The PCR assay, preceded by a rapid DNA preparation (Wizard DNA Clean-up), detected P. carinii-DNA in 13/15 sputa containing parasites as seen by microscopy using immunocytochemical (IFL) staining, and in 10 additional sputum samples lacking demonstrable parasites by microscopy. These samples are to be considered as 'true' positives, since all but 2 were from patients, who developed a PCP within 1 year. We conclude that the nested PCR assay is more sensitive than IFL for the detection of P. carinii in AIDS patients, prior to the debut of PCP symptoms.
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PMID:A rapid and simple nested PCR assay for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii in sputum samples. 906 63

We report on the development of a rapid nested PCR protocol for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens in which the protocol included the use of a commercially available DNA extraction kit (GeneReleaser). GeneReleaser enabled us to obtain amplification-ready DNA within 20 min without requiring the purification of the DNA. The nested PCR was performed with the primers pAZ102-E, pAZ102-H, and pAZ102-L2 (A. E. Wakefield, F. J. Pixley, S. Banerji, K. Sinclair, R. F. Miller, E. R. Moxon, and J. M. Hopkin, Lancet 336:451-453, 1990.). Results were obtained in about 4 h with the adoption of denaturation, annealing, and extension steps shortened to 20 seconds. The sensitivity of the nested PCR was tested with a P. carinii cyst suspension and was found to be less than one cyst (one to eight nuclei). The detection limit was the same with the use of GeneReleaser or proteinase K-phenol chloroform for DNA extraction. The nested PCR assay was prospectively compared with staining with Giemsa and methenamine silver stains for the detection of P. carinii in 127 BAL samples from 105 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients investigated for acute respiratory illness. Twenty-five BAL specimens (20%) were positive by staining and the nested PCR and 25 (20%) were negative by staining and positive by the nested PCR. These 25 BAL specimens with conflicting results were obtained from 23 patients, 82% of whom were receiving prophylactic therapy against P. carinii pneumonia (PCP). Only two patients were diagnosed with possible PCP. The final diagnosis was not PCP for 20 patients who were considered to be colonized or to have a low level of infection. This colonization is not of clinical importance but is of epidemiological importance. Our rapid, simple, and sensitive amplification protocol may be performed in clinical laboratories for the routine diagnosis of PCP with BAL specimens.
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PMID:Rapid detection of Pneumocystis carinii in bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: use of a simple DNA extraction procedure and nested PCR. 935 Jul 26

To study the initiation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcription, we have used the viral nucleocapsid protein (NC7) to anneal tRNA3Lys primer onto viral genomic RNA and have then eliminated NC7 from this primer-template complex by digestion with proteinase K and phenol-chloroform extraction of residual protein. Our data show that saturating concentrations of NC7 resulted in the formation of an active tRNA-template complex that yielded enhanced production of full-length negative-strand strong-stop DNA [(-)ssDNA] and that this complex remained active even after the elimination of NC7. While both of the two Zn finger motifs found within NC7 were essential for efficient elongation, NC protein that contained a point mutation in the first Zn finger or that was devoid of both Zn fingers yielded primer-template complexes that could still be initiated in 1-base-extension assays. In contrast, the use of heat annealing to produce primer-template complexes resulted in proportions of full-length (-)ssDNA lower than those seen with NC protein, and the addition of NC protein to such preformed primer-template complexes was able to reverse this defect only to a marginal extent.
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PMID:Roles of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nucleocapsid protein in annealing and initiation versus elongation in reverse transcription of viral negative-strand strong-stop DNA. 976 88


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