Association of Low Vitamin D with Complications of HIV and AIDS: A literature Review.

With the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), the survival of HIV patients has improved dramatically, but the complications of the disease and treatment have become an important issue in the management of HIV patients. Vitamin-D deficiency is common in HIV patients. Low vitamin-D is associated with different comorbidities in the HIV uninfected general population. In this review, we first briefly describe vitamin D synthesis and mechanism of action and we focus on the epidemiological and clinical data dealing with the relationship between vitamin D deficiency in HIV infection with several comorbidities which has been found to be increasingly common in patients living with HIV infection. We searched the PubMed database using the keywords "HIV," "vitamin D" and other common disorders or conditions that are relatively common in HIV infection. The other conditions included in the search were osteoporosis and fracture, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and insulin resistance, active tuberculosis, hepatitis-C co-infection, and HIV disease progression. Articles presenting original data as well as systematic reviews and met analysis related to HIV population were included in our analysis. Vitamin-D deficiency seems to be associated with several adverse outcomes in HIV patients but a definite cause and effect relationship with vitamin-D is yet to be confirmed in most of the cases. However, the literature supporting the efficacy of vitamin-D supplementation is lacking.

A Novel Approach of Synthesizing and Evaluating the Anticancer Potential of Silver Oxide Nanoparticles in vitro.

BACKGROUND: Development of novel strategies to kill cancer by sparing normal cells is of utmost importance. Apart from their known antimicrobial activity, only limited information has been recorded regarding the antitumor potential of biocompatible silver oxide nanoparticles (AgONPs). There is a need to evaluate the anticancer potential of biocompatible AgONPs in vitro. METHODS: A new approach of utilizing the leaf extract of Excoecaria agallocha was used to synthesize AgONPs. This was then characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, nanoparticle-tracking analysis, and ζ-potential analysis. Cytotoxicity and apoptotic potential were evaluated with an MTT assay and an annexin V-binding assay against the murine melanoma (B16F10), murine colon cancer (CT26), murine lung adenocarcinoma (3LL), and murine Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cell lines. Cellular localization of AgONPs was evaluated on fluorescence microscopy. RESULTS: UV peaks at 270 and 330 nm indicated the formation of nanoparticles (NPs) and the NP-tracking analyzer revealed them to have a size of 228 nm. AgONPs exerted initial cytotoxicity, specifically against all the experimental malignant cells by sparing the normal cell lines. Moreover, AgONPs exert apoptosis equally on all the malignant cells in vitro and ex vivo. This cytotoxicity possibly occurs via the nuclear translocation of AgONPs as analyzed in B16F10 cells. CONCLUSIONS: AgONPs utilizing natural sources would be a new medicinal approach against a broad spectrum of malignancy.

Effect of Low Dose Oral Vitamin-D and Calcium Replacement in HIV Patients.

BACKGROUND: There is high prevalence of vitamin-D deficiency and abnormal bone mineral density (BMD) in HIV patients. Our aim is to find out the effect of replacement of low dose oral vitamin-D (800 International unit) with calcium (500mg) as a once daily regimen along with antiretroviral (ARV) on serum vitamin-D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) level and bone mineral density (BMD) changes on patients with HIV infection who have vitamin- D deficiency. METHODS: This is a non-randomised, open label study. We collected information about demography, viral load, CD-4 count, fracture risk factors. We measured serum 25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone (intact PTH), inorganic phosphate, corrected calcium, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and BMD of hip and spine at baseline and after 12 months of routine follow up. Patients were treatment experienced and were divided into tenofovir containing, efavirenz containing, and protease Inhibitor (PI) containing regimens. RESULTS: The study included 87 treatment experienced HIV patients with mean age 42.8 (+/-7.8) years, 55 (63%) females, 73 (84%) black African ethnicity, CD4 count 451.7 (+/-184.6) cells/dL, plasma VL 1.6 log (+/-0.03) copies/mL, exposure to antiretroviral therapy 43.2 (+/-30.2) months and duration of illness 58.4 (+/- 24.1) months. Forty four patients agreed to take vitamin-D with calcium replacement and 43 patients did not agree to take the replacement. After 12 months of follow up patients on vitamin D and calcium replacement (n=44) had significant increase in vitamin-D level (15.4+/-6.2 vs. 55.9+/-22.6, p=0.0001), reduction in PTH (8.04 +/-7.5, vs. 4.7 +/-1.8, p=0.005), alkaline phosphatase (111.1 +/-79.1 vs. 90.2+/-42.2, p=0.038) and increase in corrected calcium (2.18 +/-0.09 vs. 2.19 +/-0.09 p=0.001). In patients not on vitamin-D replacement (n=43), there was increase in vitamin-D (16.9 +/-12.1 vs. 49.4 +/-29.2, p=0.001) and corrected calcium (2.12 +/-0.09 vs. 2.16 +/-0.08 p=0.0001) level, but PTH and ALP did not change. BMD of hip and spine did not show any significant change in either of the two groups. In multivariate analysis that included all significant variables, vitamin-D and calcium replacement independently was associated with increase in vitamin-D level (OR 1.07, CI 1.02, 1.12, p=0.005), decrease in PTH level (OR 0.53, CI 0.35, 0.82, p=0.004), but not with change in corrected calcium, alkaline phosphatase, BMD of hip or spine. CONCLUSION: After 12 months of follow up, replacement of low dose once daily oral vitamin-D with calcium in treatment experienced HIV patients with vitamin-D deficiency can increase vitamin-D level, reduce PTH level without any change in BMD of hip and spine.

Treatment failure of vaginal trichomoniasis in clinical practice.

We have conducted a retrospective study of treatment failure of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) infection in a busy, urban genitourinary medicine clinic in Birmingham, UK, between 1998 and 2002. The prevalence of non-response to standard doses of metronidazole without any history of reinfection or nonadherence was 1.7% (28/1603) overall, and has significantly increased from 0.38% in 1999 to 3.5% in 2002 (P = 0.001, chi2 test). There were no associated demographic factors. The majority of patients (53% or 15/28) responded to either a repeat of standard (10/26) or higher oral dose (5/7) of metronidazole. A standardized treatment algorithm using a high dose of metronidazole may be useful in the absence of any new, efficacious non-imidazole-based TV therapy in the clinical management of persistent TV infection.