Eight-year survival of AIDS patients treated with Chinese herbal medicine.

Treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) currently relies on the use of antiretroviral drugs. Little is known about Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) outcomes in patients living with AIDS. We conducted a cohort study to investigate long-term survival among CHM-treated AIDS patients. Patients were poor farmers who contracted HIV-1 infection when selling blood in the 1990s. Symptoms of AIDS included recurring respiratory tract infections with a clinical diagnosis of pneumonia, swollen lymph nodes and weight loss. 385 patients with AIDS were included and 165 of them used a 16-herb formula for 14 days to 9 months. The eight-year survival rate was 87% for the CHM users and 34% for the non-users (increased survival probability for CHM user, 9.6; 95% CI = 6.0-15.4; p < 0.0001). Survival probability further increased 14.6-fold (95% CI = 8.2-26.1), when excluding the users who received CHM for less than three months. Zero deaths were found in patients who used CHM for six to nine months. All the survivors regained their body weight and none of them experienced a relapse of AIDS or any severe adverse events. After the CHM treatment for an average of 3.6 months, the plasma HIV load was 74.7% lower (paired t-test, p = 0.151) and the number of blood CD4+ lymphocytes increased from 253 to 314 (paired t-test, p = 0.021). Without life-long medication, CHM may be beneficial for long-term survival of AIDS patients.

Detection of specific glycosaminoglycans and glycan epitopes by in vitro sulfation using recombinant sulfotransferases.

Sulfated glycans play critical roles during the development, differentiation and growth of various organisms. The most well-studied sulfated molecules are sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Recent incidents of heparin drug contamination convey the importance of having a convenient and sensitive method for detecting different GAGs. Here, we describe a molecular method to detect GAGs in biological and biomedical samples. Because the sulfation of GAGs is generally not saturated in vivo, it is possible to introduce the radioisotope (35)S in vitro using recombinant sulfotransferases, thereby allowing detection of minute quantities of these molecules. This strategy was also successfully applied in the detection of other glycans. As examples, we detected contaminant GAGs in commercial heparin, heparan sulfate and chondroitin samples. The identities of the contaminant GAGs were further confirmed by lyase digestion. Oversulfated chondroitin sulfate was detectable only following a simple desulfation step. Additionally, in vitro sulfation by sulfotransferases allowed us to map glycan epitopes in biological samples. This was illustrated using mouse embryo and rat organ tissue sections labeled with the following carbohydrate sulfotransferases: CHST3, CHST15, HS3ST1, CHST4 and CHST10.