Subject(s)
HIV Infections/diagnosis , HIV-1/isolation & purification , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Adult , Blotting, Western , Child, Preschool , HIV Antibodies/blood , HIV Infections/virology , HIV-1/genetics , HIV-1/immunology , Humans , Immunoenzyme Techniques , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Reagent Kits, Diagnostic , Sensitivity and Specificity , ThailandABSTRACT
Early diagnosis of perinatally transmitted human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection can guide early interventions. HIV coculture and DNA polymerase chain reaction (DNA-PCR) detect few HIV-infected infants at birth and 90%-100% by age 3 months. Because extracellular HIV RNA may appear soon after infection, a plasma HIV RNA assay was compared with DNA-PCR for early detection of perinatally infected infants. Blood-draw specimens (108) obtained at the same time from 49 HIV-infected infants and 10 specimens from 8 uninfected infants were tested. HIV RNA and DNA-PCR positivity rates were 56% and 33%, respectively, in 36 specimens from 36 infants <28 days of age (binomial test, P = .001). Among 81 specimens obtained after age 14 days, 79 (98%) were positive by HIV RNA testing. No HIV-infected infant specimens were DNA-PCR-positive and HIV RNA-negative. All specimens from 8 uninfected infants were HIV RNA-negative. These results suggest that plasma HIV RNA was detectable earlier and more reliably than HIV DNA in perinatal infection.
Subject(s)
HIV Infections/diagnosis , Infant, Newborn, Diseases/diagnosis , Female , HIV Infections/congenital , HIV-1/genetics , Humans , Infant, Newborn , New York City , Perinatology , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Pregnancy , Pregnancy Complications, Infectious , RNA, Viral/analysis , Time FactorsABSTRACT
PIP: Peripheral blood mononuclear cell specimens were collected from 13 HIV-1-infected IV drug users in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as well as one HIV-infected baby, between 1992 and 1993. DNA was then amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction and a 345-bp fragment of the C2V3 region of the env gene was sequenced. 11 of the 14 Malaysian sequences clustered with the B' subtype, one different from the typical subtype B US strains HIVMN and HIVSF2. Two sequences grouped in the C subtype and had sister taxa closer to the Indian C subtype sequences than those from Zambia. The sequence from the infant was identified as a subtype E virus, grouped more closely with subtype E strains from Thailand than subtype E viruses from the Central African Republic.^ieng
Subject(s)
HIV Envelope Protein gp120/genetics , HIV Infections/virology , HIV-1/genetics , Peptide Fragments/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Base Sequence , DNA, Viral/analysis , HIV Infections/epidemiology , HIV-1/classification , Humans , Malaysia/epidemiology , Molecular Sequence Data , PhylogenyABSTRACT
The levels of the synaptic vesicle-associated proteins, synapsin and synaptophysin, were examined in human postmortem hippocampus from the brains of schizophrenics and age-matched controls using a quantitative western blot analysis. The schizophrenic samples had significantly lower levels of synapsin I than controls. In individual data, five of the seven schizophrenic samples had extremely low levels of synapsin, whereas two of the schizophrenic samples had normal levels of synapsin. This deficit in synapsin does not appear to be due to some non-specific neuronal loss as the levels of the other synaptic vesicle marker, synaptophysin, were near normal in all seven schizophrenics. Given that synapsin is thought to regulate neurotransmitter release, it is possible that this deficit in synapsin could result in abnormal processing of neuronal information as is seen in various sensory processing abnormalities associated with schizophrenia.
Subject(s)
Hippocampus/pathology , Schizophrenia/pathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Synapsins/analysis , Synaptophysin/analysis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Blotting, Western , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Reference Values , Synaptic Transmission/physiology , Synaptic Vesicles/pathologyABSTRACT
A nonradioactive, colorimetric microplate hybridization procedure was used to assay human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA, amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Under the PCR conditions used, four proviral copies per 150,000 cells were detected by amplifying a series of DNA mixtures that contained various copy numbers of HIV. Assays of PCR-amplified DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of seronegative individuals yielded negative results (104 of 104), whereas samples from seropositive individuals yielded > 99% positive results (141 of 142). Similar results were obtained in a chemiluminescent assay with an acridinium ester-labeled probe and in a solution hybridization assay in which a 32P-labeled probe was used.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/microbiology , Colorimetry , DNA, Viral/analysis , HIV-1/genetics , Nucleic Acid Hybridization , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Base Sequence , HIV Seropositivity/microbiology , Humans , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/microbiology , Molecular Sequence DataSubject(s)
Attitude to Health , Child Behavior , Disabled Persons , Child , Female , Humans , Male , SchoolsABSTRACT
The theory of partially coherent light is extended to cover time-varying fields observed by a detector with time constant T. The response of an interferometric optical discriminator is examined. The system uses a two-beam interferometer with transit time difference taur. The curves presented show discriminator response to step-function optical frequency shifts as a function of tau/T. They point to two conclusions, valid for tau/T > 10(-1): (i) initial and final states, and exponential detector response, neglecting mutual coherence theory, fail to explain dynamic behavior; (ii) multiple-fringe step-function frequency shifts are stretched over a period tau, permitting fringe counting.
