Integrating tuberculosis and mental health services: global receptivity of national tuberculosis program directors.

A global survey of National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) directors. To assess the perceived mental health needs of persons with tuberculosis (TB), current practices, and receptivity to integrating evidence-based mental and substance use treatment into national TB guidelines. Semi-structured survey of NTP directors from 26 countries of all income levels using a standardized questionnaire. Of the 26 countries, 21 were classified as high incidence and/or burden countries for TB, TB and human immunodeficiency virus coinfection, and/or drug-resistant TB. Two NTPs included routine screening for any mental disorder, four assessed alcohol or drug use, and five had standard protocols for the co-management of disorders. If effective and low-cost integrated care models were available, 17 NTP directors felt that it was highly likely, and five somewhat likely, that their NTPs would integrate mental health treatment into national TB guidelines and services. The main perceived barriers to service integration were limited capacity, not recognizing mental health as a problem, insufficient resources, and TB-related social stigma. NTPs currently do not address mental disorders as part of routine practice. Nevertheless, receptivity is high, which creates a ripe opportunity to integrate the management of TB and mental disorders into the policies and guidelines of NTPs worldwide. .

Addressing the tuberculosis-depression syndemic to end the tuberculosis epidemic.

Tuberculosis (TB) and depression act synergistically via social, behavioral, and biological mechanisms to magnify the burden of disease. Clinical depression is a common, under-recognized, yet treatable condition that, if comorbid with TB, is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, community TB transmission, and drug resistance. Depression may increase risk of TB reactivation, contribute to disease progression, and/or inhibit the physiological response to anti-tuberculosis treatment because of poverty, undernutrition, immunosuppression, and/or negative coping behaviors, including substance abuse. Tuberculous infection and/or disease reactivation may precipitate depression as a result of the inflammatory response and/or dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Clinical depression may also be triggered by TB-related stigma, exacerbating other underlying social vulnerabilities, and/or may be attributed to the side effects of anti-tuberculosis treatment. Depression may negatively impact health behaviors such as diet, health care seeking, medication adherence, and/or treatment completion, posing a significant challenge for global TB elimination. As several of the core symptoms of TB and depression overlap, depression often goes unrecognized in individuals with active TB, or is dismissed as a normative reaction to situational stress. We used evidence to reframe TB and depression comorbidity as the 'TB-depression syndemic', and identified critical research gaps to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms. The World Health Organization's Global End TB Strategy calls for integrated patient-centered care and prevention linked to social protection and innovative research. It will require multidisciplinary approaches that consider conditions such as TB and depression together, rather than as separate problems and diseases, to end the global TB epidemic.

A Mathematical Model to Predict HIV Virological Failure and Elucidate the Role of Lymph Node Drug Penetration.

Preventing virological failure following HIV treatment remains a difficult task that is further complicated by the emergence of drug resistance. We have developed a mathematical model able to explain and predict HIV virological outcomes for various compounds and patients' drug intake patterns. Compared to current approaches, this model considers, altogether, drug penetration into lymph nodes, a refined adherence representation accounting for the propensity for long drug holidays, population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variability, drug interaction, and crossresistance. In silico results are consistent with clinical observations for treatment with efavirenz, efavirenz in association with tenofovir DF and emtricitabine, or boosted darunavir. Our findings indicate that limited lymph node drug penetration can account for a large proportion of cases of virological failure and drug resistance. Since a limited amount of information is required by the model, it can be of use in the process of drug discovery and to guide clinical treatment strategies.

Subtypes of depressive symptoms and inflammatory biomarkers: An exploratory study on a sample of HIV-positive patients.

Depressive symptoms cause major impairment and may accelerate HIV progression despite the use of antiretroviral medication. The somatic symptoms criteria for HIV infection and depression partially overlap, which can make differential diagnosis challenging. Because of chronic inflammation caused by HIV infection, HIV-positive patients may develop somatic and affective-cognitive symptoms of depression. Inflammation-related depression is primarily characterized with severe somatic symptoms such as fatigue and sleep disturbance. This study sought to explore the patterns of somatic and cognitive-affective depressive symptoms that characterize HIV-positive patients. Our specific aims were (1) to identify subtypes of depressive symptoms in a sample of HIV-positive patients; and (2) to test the subtypes' difference on inflammatory and HIV disease progression biomarkers. HIV-positive men and women (N=102) with and without depressive symptoms were randomly selected from an Italian HIV clinic. Depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), viral load (VL), CD4+, Il-6, TNF-α, and monocytes were assessed. The three subtypes formed using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) identified patients with (1) severe cognitive-affective and somatic depressive symptoms; (2) severe/moderate somatic symptoms; and (3) absent or low depressive symptoms. The subtype with severe/moderate somatic symptoms was characterized with elevated levels of Il-6 and monocytes. No difference on HIV progression biomarkers was found. The subtypes of depressive symptoms might help differentiating depressive symptoms from HIV- and inflammatory-related somatic symptoms. When present, cognitive-affective and/or somatic symptoms cause significant impairment to patients' lives and thus warrant further assessment and treatment.

Update on World Health Organization HIV drug resistance prevention and assessment strategy: 2004-2011.

The HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) prevention and assessment strategy, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with HIVResNet, includes monitoring of HIVDR early warning indicators, surveys to assess acquired and transmitted HIVDR, and development of an accredited HIVDR genotyping laboratory network to support survey implementation in resource-limited settings. As of June 2011, 52 countries had implemented at least 1 element of the strategy, and 27 laboratories had been accredited. As access to antiretrovirals expands under the WHO/Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS Treatment 2.0 initiative, it is essential to strengthen HIVDR surveillance efforts in the face of increasing concern about HIVDR emergence and transmission.

A low-cost, sustainable intervention for drinking reduction in the HIV primary care setting.

Excess drinking poses multiple substantial health risks to HIV-infected individuals. However, no published intervention studies have focused on drinking reduction as the main outcome in HIV primary care patients. An intervention in this setting must place minimal demands on pressured staff and resources. This pilot study tested such an intervention, which consisted of brief Motivational Interviewing (MI) and HealthCall, an automated daily telephone self-monitoring system based on Interactive Voice Response (IVR), designed to extend and enhance the effects of brief MI. Thirty-one patients entered the study, received a 30-minute MI and were instructed in daily use of the IVR system. They received graphical feedback on their daily drinking from the HealthCall database after 30 days. A statistically significant decrease in drinking was found over time, both as reported in daily IVR calls (beta = - 0.01, se 0.01, p=.03) and in follow-up interviews (beta = - 0.04, se 0.12, p=.02) at 60 days. The proportion of daily calls made supported the feasibility of the intervention. The results indicate that HealthCall is acceptable to a disadvantaged HIV patient population, and preliminary data support the efficacy of this intervention in reducing harmful drinking among HIV primary care patients.

Effects of drug resistance on viral load in patients failing antiretroviral therapy.

Previous studies on patients who develop drug resistant HIV-1 variants have shown that continued use of failing regimens might provide clinical benefit. However, the effect of long-term exposure to drug resistant variants may lead to emergence of compensatory mutations that may jeopardize this effect. In this study, we assess associations among type and number of drug resistant mutations, viral load and disease progression in patients with long-term follow up. Patients with genotypic testing performed at the time of treatment failure were enrolled. Comparison of viral load and CD4 cell count between different resistance groups was performed using analysis of variance. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the simultaneous effects of the presence of particular mutations and their accumulation on viral load. Data from 475 patients who were followed for a median of 43 months from October 1999 to July 2005 were studied. A "V shape" relationship was observed between the number of mutations and viral load. Specifically, in patients harboring up to five mutations, viral load was reduced by 0.8 log/copies when compared to wild-type variants. However, with more than six mutations viral load progressively increased. Certain reverse transcriptase mutations such as M184V/I, K70R, V108I, and protease mutations such as L33FIV, M84V, and M36I were associated with reduced viral load. Together, these findings suggest that long-term maintenance of a sub-optimal antiretroviral regimen may have deleterious consequences for the patient.

Rationale for maintenance of the M184v resistance mutation in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase in treatment experienced patients.

The M184V substitution in HIV-1 RT develops rapidly following initiation of therapy with 3TC and confers high-level phenotypic resistance to this drug both in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, the presence of M184V is also associated with alteration of several mechanisms relating to RT function that include decreased RTprocessivity, reduced nucleotide-dependent primer unblocking, increased fidelity, hypersensitization to other NRTIs, impaired viral fitness, and delayed appearance of mutations in RT that are responsible for resistance to thymidine analogues (i.e. thymidine-associated mutations or TAMs). In addition, M184V may affect viral transmission and immunological response. Collectively, these factors might explain the residual antiviral effect and clinical benefit observed with continued use of 3TC in combination therapy regimens following the emergence of M184V.

The long-term effects of anti-retroviral protease inhibitors on sugar transport in L6 cells.

The objective of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of anti-retroviral protease inhibitors (PIs) on 2-deoxy-d -glucose (2-DG) transport in L6 cells in vitro. Exposure of L6 cells to saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir and amprenavir resulted in significant increases in 2-DG transport using PI concentrations of 1-10 microM with continual exposure to PI. After removal of the PI for up to 48 h, 2-DG transport increases did not change and remained at pre-reversal levels. These changes in 2-DG transport were not related to stress-induced sugar transport or to apoptosis. The examination of glucose transporter (GLUT) 1, 3 or 4 translocation with subcellular fractionation indicated that insulin (i.e. 67 nM) could induce the translocation of all the GLUTs to the plasma membrane. Also, ritonavir (10 microM), which leads to a 2-fold increase in 2-DG transport, demonstrated increased GLUT (i.e. 1, 3 or 4) presence in the plasma membrane fraction, in the presence or absence of insulin. This increased 2-DG transport involved transporter presence in plasma membrane preparations and did not affect the ability of insulin to stimulate 2-DG transport with continual PI exposure. The mechanism(s) involved indicates ready reversibility of PI effects on transporters. The mechanism(s) why reversibility of PI-induced 2-DG transport was similar plus or minus PI was not apparent.

Nonradioactive detection of retroviral-associated RNase H activity in a microplate-based, high-throughput format.

None of the available antiretroviral drugs that are currently used in the clinic to treat infection with HIV-1 is directed against the RNase H active site of the reverse transcriptase. Here we developed a nonradioactive, 96-well plate assay designed to be used for high-throughput screening of compounds capable of inhibiting the RNase H activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. We employed a tRNA as substrate that was labeled with digoxygenin-modified reporter residues. The labeled tRNA was prehybridized with a DNA oligonucleotide that contained a single biotinylated residue at its 5'-terminus to ensure its attachment to streptavidin-coated microplates. The uncleaved, immobilized DNA/tRNA substrate was detected through the use of established ELISA protocols. Incubation with purified HIV-1 reverse transcriptase initiated RNase H degradation and caused a signal reduction to negligible background levels. In contrast, the signal intensity remained unaffected when using an RNase H deficient mutant enzyme. The assay was validated using the hydrazone derivative BBNH that was previously shown to inhibit RNase H degradation below concentrations of 10 microM.

Partial restoration of replication of simian immunodeficiency virus by point mutations in either the dimerization initiation site (DIS) or Gag region after deletion mutagenesis within the DIS.

We used the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) molecular clone SIVmac239 to generate a deletion construct, termed SD2, in which we eliminated 22 nucleotides at positions +398 to +418 within the putative dimerization initiation site (DIS) stem. This SD2 deletion severely impaired viral replication, due to adverse effects on the packaging of viral genomic RNA, the processing of Gag proteins, and viral protein patterns. However, long-term culture of SD2 in either C8166 or CEMx174 cells resulted in restoration of replication capacity, due to two different sets of three compensatory point mutations, located within both the DIS and Gag regions. In the case of C8166 cells, both a K197R and a E49K mutation were identified within the capsid (CA) protein and the p6 protein of Gag, respectively, while the other point mutation (A423G) was found within the putative DIS loop. In the case of CEMx174 cells, two compensatory mutations were present within the viral nucleocapsid (NC) protein, E18G and Q31K, in addition to the same A423G substitution as observed with C8166 cells. A set of all three mutations was required in each case for restoration of replication capacity, and either set of mutations could be substituted for the other in both the C8166 and CEMx174 cell lines.

An intact U5-leader stem is important for efficient replication of simian immunodeficiency virus.

Previous work has shown that four deletions in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), termed SD1a, SD1b, SD1c, and SD6, which eliminated sequences at nucleotide positions 322 to 362, 322 to 370, 322 to 379, and 371 to 379, respectively, located downstream of the primer binding site, impaired viral replication capacity to different extents. Long-term culturing of viruses containing the SD1a, SD1b, and SD6 deletions led to revertants that possessed wild-type replication kinetics. We now show that these revertants retained the original deletions in each case but that novel additional mutations were also present. These included a large deletion termed D1 (nt +216 to +237) within the U5 region that was shown to be biologically relevant to reversion of both the SD1a and SD1b constructs. In the case of SD6, two compensatory point mutations, i.e., A+369G, termed M1, located immediately upstream of the SD6 deletion, and C+201T, termed M2, within U5, were identified and could act either singly or in combination to restore viral replication. Secondary structure suggests that an intact U5-leader stem is important in SIV for infectiousness and that the additional mutants described played important roles in restoration of this motif.

HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein and the secondary structure of the binary complex formed between tRNA(Lys.3) and viral RNA template play different roles during initiation of (-) strand DNA reverse transcription.

In human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the tRNA(Lys.3) primer and viral RNA template can form a specific complex that is characterized by extensive inter- and intramolecular interactions. Initiation of reverse transcription from this complex has been shown to be distinguished from subsequent elongation by early pausing events, such as at the +1 and +3 nucleotide positions. One major concern regarding the biological relevance of these results is that most kinetic studies of HIV-1 reverse transcription have been performed using tRNA(Lys.3)-viral (v) RNA complexes that were formed by heat annealing. In contrast, tRNA(Lys.3) in viruses is placed onto the primer binding site by nucleocapsid (NC) sequences of the Gag protein. In this study, we have further characterized the initiation features of reverse transcription in the presence of HIV-1 NC protein. In contrast to results obtained with a heat-annealed tRNA(Lys.3).vRNA complex, we found that polymerization reactions catalyzed by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase did not commonly pause at the +1 nucleotide position when a NC-annealed RNA complex was used, and that this was true regardless whether NC was actually still present during reverse transcription. This activity of NC required both zinc finger motifs, as demonstrated by experiments that employed zinc finger-mutated forms of NC protein (H23C NC and ddNC), supporting the involvement of the zinc fingers in the RNA chaperone activity of NC. However, NC was not able to help reverse transcriptase to escape the +3 pausing event. Mutagenesis of a stem structure within the tRNA(Lys.3). vRNA complex led to disappearance of the +3 pausing event as well as to significantly reduced rates of reverse transcription. Thus, this stem structure is essential for optimal reverse transcription, despite its role in promotion of the +3 pausing event.

Role of stem B, loop B, and nucleotides next to the primer binding site and the kissing-loop domain in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication and genomic-RNA dimerization.

Stem-loop B is a 12-nucleotide [nt]-long completely conserved sequence postulated to form a 4-bp stem and a 4-nt internal loop under the kissing-loop hairpin (klh) (nt 248 to 270) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) genomic RNA. We investigated its role in viral replication, genomic RNA dimerization, and dimerization of partial HIV-1 RNA transcripts. The putative CUCG246-CGAG277 duplex was replaced by nine alternative complementary sequences, five likely to base pair only in short RNAs and four likely to base pair in long (approximately 500-nt) RNAs, as assessed by the algorithm mfold. Among the five former sequences, none preserved genome dimerization and all reduced viral replication by 98 to 99.9%. Among the four latter sequences, three (MB6, -9, and -10) preserved genome dimerization, one (MB7) did not significantly inhibit it, and two (MB9 and -10) preserved viral replication. We conclude that duplex formation by stem B nucleotides is necessary for viral infectivity and complete genome dimerization. Deleting the 5' or 3' side of loop B or of stem B had little impact on dimerization of partial RNA transcript and no impact on klh folding (and, for loop B mutations, on stem B folding), but each deletion inhibited genome dimerization almost as much as klh destruction. This suggests that loop B is required for complete genome dimerization and that loop B and stem B stimulate dimerization only in very long RNAs and/or in the presence of unidentified viral and cellular factors. Finally, we asked if nine deletions or nucleotide substitutions within nt 200 to 242 and/or nt 282 to 335 could influence genome dimerization. These mutations had intermediate inhibitory impacts consistent with their predicted influence on stem B, loop B, and klh formation. Two exceptions were Delta200-226 and Delta236-242 genomic RNAs, which dimerized relatively poorly despite having neutral or positive influences on stem B, loop B, and klh folding.

HIV/AIDS preparedness in mental health care agencies with high and low substance use disorder caseloads.

PURPOSE: The Columbia University HIV Mental Health Training Project, created to improve the mental health workforce's AIDS preparedness in New York and neighboring states, sought to compare the perceived HIV-related needs and capacities of mental health care providers in settings where clients with substance use disorders predominated versus those where clients with substance use disorders were the minority of the agencies' caseload. METHODS: The first consecutive 67 mental health care agencies that requested HIV/AIDS training between March 2000 and January 2001 completed a written needs assessment describing their HIV-related services and training needs. RESULTS: Agencies with higher substance abuse caseloads were significantly more likely than others to have large HIV/AIDS caseloads, to be currently providing condoms to clients, and to rate staff comfort with sexual identity issues as well as drug-related issues as good. Overall, agencies that had received previous training in specific topic areas (e.g., HIV risk assessment) were significantly more likely than others to provide those services. Even so, in all settings, significant gaps in service provision were found. IMPLICATIONS: Two decades into the AIDS epidemic, mental health care agencies, especially those treating smaller caseloads of patients with substance use disorders, may not be providing sufficient services to meet their clients' HIV-related needs.

Hydrophobic amino acids in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 p2 and nucleocapsid proteins can contribute to the rescue of deleted viral RNA packaging signals.

An RNA fragment of 75 nucleotides, which is located between the primer binding site and the 5' major splice donor site in human immunodeficiency virus type 1, has been shown to participate in specific encapsidation of viral RNA. Compensation studies have identified two second-site mutations, namely, MP2 (a T12I substitution in p2) and MNC (a T24I substitution in the nucleocapsid [NC] protein) that were involved in the rescue of various deletions in the aforementioned RNA region (i.e., BH-D1, BH-D2, and BH-LD3). To study whether the MP2 and MNC point mutations exert their compensatory effects in a cis manner, production of Gag proteins was blocked by insertion of stop codons into LD3, LD3-MP2-MNC, and wild-type BH10 such that the constructs generated, i.e., LD3-DG, LD3-MP2-MNC-DG, and BH-DG, only provided RNA transcripts for packaging. The results of cotransfection experiments showed that the LD3-MP2-MNC-DG viral RNA was packaged as inefficiently as LD3-DG; in contrast, BH-DG was efficiently packaged. Therefore, nucleotide substitutions in MP2 and MNC did not act in a cis manner to correct the packaging deficits in LD3. Next, we deliberately changed the T12 in p2 or the T24 in the NC to each of 19 other amino acids. We found that amino acids with long hydrophobic side chains, i.e., V, L, I, and M, were favored at either position 12 in p2 or at position 24 in NC to compensate for the above-mentioned deletions. Further studies showed that only a few amino acids could not be used at these two sites by the wild-type virus due to decreased RNA levels in the virion or abnormal Gag protein processing. In this case, W, D, and E could not substitute for T12 in p2, and S, D, and N could not substitute for T24 in NC, without affecting viral infectivity. Therefore, the long hydrophobic side chains of V, L, I, and M are necessary for these amino acids to rescue the BH-D1, BH-D2, and BH-LD3 mutated viruses.

Resistance profiles to antiretroviral drugs in HIV-1 drug-naive patients in Argentina.

The drug resistance profile of treatment-naive HIV-infected individuals living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was studied. Samples taken from 94 drug-naive individuals with established HIV infection and 13 patients with primary HIV infection were assessed by nucleotide sequencing and LIPA. The prevalence of drug-associated primary mutations in individuals with established infection was very low. In the viral protease region, 1/86 (1.2%) individuals carried the D30N mutation, whereas 1/85 (1.2%) had the M41L mutation in the reverse transcriptase (RT) region. Secondary mutations in both the protease and RT regions were found in almost 90% of the individuals. In individuals with primary infection, primary mutations were detected in 2/13 (15.4%) patients, one of them carrying M461 mutation in the protease while the other patient had a mutation at codon 184 of the RT. In accordance with current drug resistance testing guidelines, the results of this study suggest that susceptibility tests need not be performed at this time prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-1-infected people in Argentina. However, the public health implications of this subject warrant follow-up studies that will examine a larger number of drug-naive patients, not only in Buenos Aires but also in other major Argentinian cities and in rural areas.

Development of drug resistance in patients receiving combinations of zidovudine, didanosine and nevirapine.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the development of phenotypic and genotypic resistance to zidovudine, didanosine and nevirapine as a function of the virologic response to therapy in a group of drug-naive individuals receiving various combinations of these agents. DESIGN: All patients were enrolled in a double-blind controlled randomized trial (the INCAS study) and were selected for detailed resistance studies based on specimen availability and virologic response. METHODS: Within the three study groups (zidovudine/nevirapine, zidovudine/didanosine or zidovudine/nevirapine/didanosine), 16, 19 and 24 patients, respectively, had evaluable baseline isolates and remained in the study > 24 weeks. Phenotypic resistance to all three drugs was evaluated using the VIRCO recombinant virus assay. Genotypic sequencing was done on selected specimens from patients receiving zidovudine/nevirapine/didanosine. RESULTS: After 24 weeks, all available isolates taken from patients receiving nevirapine were resistant to this agent, while 18/21 (86%) patients receiving triple therapy carried such isolates at 30--60 weeks. At 24 weeks, zidovudine resistance developed in 4/40 isolates but was more frequent after 30--60 weeks, especially in patients on two drugs. The degree of zidovudine resistance (rise in concentration required for 50% inhibition) appeared lower in the triple therapy group compared with zidovudine/didanosine (P = 0.0004). All nevirapine-resistant isolates that were sequenced carried at least one mutation associated with resistance, most often K103N and/or Y181C. CONCLUSION: The use of highly active drug therapies may be associated with a beneficial effect on the development of antiretroviral drug resistance. The characteristics of virologic suppression that must be maintained to avoid resistance are currently being studied in hypothesis-driven clinical trials.