HIV and helminth co-infection: is deworming necessary?

We have previously suggested that helminth infections play a major role in the pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection in Africa and other developing areas, due to their profound effects on the host immune system, which make those infected more susceptible to HIV-1 infection and less able to cope with it. Chronic immune activation with a dominant Th2 profile, and anergy, are the hallmarks of chronic helminth infection, and may therefore account for most of these effects. In the present review, we summarize the studies that have addressed these issues and argue that despite some conflicting results, the cumulative immunological and epidemiological evidence is in favour of deworming as a preventive and possible therapeutic measure vis-à-vis HIV-1 infection. We suggest that it should be at least tested on a wider and larger scale than has been done until now, because of its immense potential impact on the still raging AIDS epidemic in developing countries.

Successful treatment of aggressive HIV-associated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with combination chemotherapy, biotherapy with rituximab and HAART: presentation of a therapeutic option.

The incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is more than 60 times higher than in matched controls. In the vast majority of cases aggressive pathological subtypes and advanced stages prevail, extranodal sites are involved and systemic symptoms are present. The prognosis of HIV-NHL remains poor and the optimal therapeutic approach has yet to be defined. We report a 48-year-old Ethiopian woman with advanced-stage HIV infection, who developed diffuse large cell, immunoblastic type B-cell NHL and was treated with a modified CHOP-like chemotherapy combined with Rituximab and supported with growth factor. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and opportunistic infections prophylaxis were administered concomitantly. The patient completed 6 cycles of therapy and currently, 76 weeks after diagnosis, is in complete clinical remission. Despite the fact that there was a transient decrease in the CD4-positive cell number and a 1.5 log increase in plasma viral load there were no opportunistic infections, nor was life-threatening toxicity seen. Rituximab seems a well-tolerable and advantageous adjunct to chemotherapy and HAART in the treatment of aggressive HIV-associated NHL andshould be investigated in large trials in the future.

Beyond self and nonself: fuzzy recognition of the immune system.

Self-nonself discrimination of the immune system is a widely accepted principle of immunology; however, abundant existing and physiologic functions of harmless autoimmunity as well as degeneracy of antigen recognition expose the over-simplification of the two-valued doctrine. Here, based on infinite-value fuzzy logic, we propose that the immune repertoire, as a consequence of central tolerance, is able to recognize both self and nonself antigens to a certain degree, compensating for the inadequacy of the two-valued self-nonself doctrine. Subthreshold recognition of self antigens is necessary for the generation of regulatory T cells, survival of both naive and memory T cells and other physiologic functions. The kind and magnitude of the immune response depend on the affinity between the antigen (self and foreign) and the T-cell receptor, and microenvironmental and cellular threshold. The outcome of self-nonself discrimination is influenced fundamentally by central tolerance and further dynamic regulation of threshold molecules both in time and space. Understanding the fuzzy feature of the immune system may shed light on mechanisms of autoimmune diseases, cancers and other chronic diseases, and lead to the design of novel vaccines or immunotherapies.

Effects of homeopathic treatment in women with premenstrual syndrome: a pilot study.

Alternative therapies in general, and homeopathy in particular, lack clear scientific evaluation of efficacy. Controlled clinical trials are urgently needed, especially for conditions that are not helped by conventional methods. The objective of this work was to assess the efficacy of homeopathic treatment in relieving symptoms associated with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It was a randomised controlled double-blind clinical trial. Two months baseline assessment with post-intervention follow-up for 3 months was conducted at Hadassah Hospital outpatient gynaecology clinic in Jerusalem in Israel 1992-1994. The subjects were 20 women, aged 20-48, suffering from PMS. Homeopathic intervention was chosen individually for each patient, according to a model of symptom clusters. Recruited volunteers with PMS were treated randomly with one oral dose of a homeopathic medication or placebo. The main outcome measure was scores of a daily menstrual distress questionnaire (MDQ) before and after treatment. Psychological tests for suggestibility were used to examine the possible effects of suggestion. Mean MDQ scores fell from 0.44 to 0.13 (P<0.05) with active treatment, and from 0.38 to 0.34 with placebo (NS). (Between group P=0.057). Improvement >30% was observed in 90% of patients receiving active treatment and 37.5% receiving placebo (P=0.048). Homeopathic treatment was found to be effective in alleviating the symptoms of PMS in comparison to placebo. The use of symptom clusters in this trial may offer a novel approach that will facilitate clinical trials in homeopathy. Further research is in progress.

Genotypic variation of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and protease: comparative analysis of clade C and clade B.

OBJECTIVE: To compare drug-resistant variants from untreated (naive) and treated patients infected with clade B or C virus. METHODS: Consecutive samples (165) from patients throughout Israel were analyzed. All those in the treated group were failing highly active antiretroviral therapy. RESULTS: There were 87 clade B (14 naive) and 78 clade C (20 naive) [corrected] with significant differences in the prevalence of known drug-resistance mutations between the clades: in naive patients in the protease region M36I 7% and 95% (P < 0.0001), K20R 0% and 27% (P = 0.063), A71V 18% and 0% (P = 0.063), M46I 0% and 13%, and V77I 18% and 0% (P = 0.063), respectively, and in the reverse transcriptase region A98G/S 0% and 20% (P = 0.12), respectively. Most clade C viruses also showed significant differences from clade B consensus sequence at additional protease sites: R41K 100%, H69K/Q 85%, L89M 95% and I93L 80% (P < 0.0001). There were also significant differences (P < 0.03 to < 0.0001) in treated patients in clades B and C: in the protease region L10I 40% and 12%, M36I 26% and 95%, L63P 67% and 40%, A71I 38% and 7%, G73I and V77I 18% and 0%, I84V 16% and 3%, and L90M 40% and 12%, respectively; in the reverse transcriptase M41L 41% and 17%, D67N 41% and12%, K70R 30% and 7%, T215Y 48% and 29%, K219Q 21% and 7%, and A98G/S 3% and 24%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Significantly differences between clade B and C viruses may be associated with development of differing resistance patterns during therapy and may affect drug utility in patients infected with clade C.

Helminths, human immunodeficiency virus and tuberculosis.

Helminth infections affect over a quarter of the world's population, especially in the developing countries. These long-lasting parasitic infections cause widespread immune activation and dysregulation, a dominant Th2 cytokine immune profile and an immune hyporesponsiveness state. Considering these profound immune changes and the similar geographic distributions of helminthic infections, HIV and tuberculosis (TB), we suggest that helminthic infections play a major role in the pathogenesis of AIDS and TB. They apparently make the host more susceptible to infection by HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and impair his/her ability to generate protective immunity against both infections. The implication of these ideas is that without eradication of helminth infections and/or modulation of the immune changes that they cause, HIV and TB vaccines may fail to confer protection against their respective infections in helminth-endemic areas.

Immune activation correlates better than HIV plasma viral load with CD4 T-cell decline during HIV infection.

This study addressed the role of T-cell immune activation in determining HIV-1 plasma viral load and CD4+ T-cell blood levels during HIV-1 infection. A decrease of blood CD4 levels and CD4/CD8 ratios and an increase of CD8 levels in both treated (n = 35) and untreated (n = 19) HIV-positive individuals were more strongly correlated to immune activation (log percentage of HLA-DR+CD3+ cells; R = -0.78, R = -0.77, and R = 0.58, respectively; p <.0001) than to CD4 T-cell proliferation (log percentage of Ki-67+CD4+ cells; R = -0.57 [p <.0001], R = -0.48 [p <.001], and R = 0.37 [p <.01], respectively) or to viral load (R = -0.36 [p <.01], R = -0.23 [p =.09], R = 0.13 [p =.35], respectively). Because almost half of the Ki-67+CD4+ cells were also positive for CTLA-4 (a marker for activated nonproliferating cells), the correlation of CD4 levels to Ki-67 expression is only partially related to cell proliferation and more likely represents mainly immune activation of the cells without proliferation. Taken together, these results suggest that immune activation is the major determinant of CD4 decline and should therefore be considered central for the monitoring of HIV infection and its outcome after antiviral treatment.

Increased CCR5 and CXCR4 expression in Ethiopians living in Israel: environmental and constitutive factors.

HIV coreceptors play a major role in determining susceptibility and HIV cell tropism. The present work studied whether the high expression of these coreceptors found on lymphocytes and monocytes of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel (ETH) is the result of environmental and/or constitutive genetic factors. The study of 26 ETH shortly after their arrival to Israel (new ETH), 22 ETH in Israel over 7 years (old ETH), and 20 Caucasian Israelis (non-ETH) enabled us to address this issue. The new ETH had elevated levels of activated HLA-DR+CD4+ and CD38+CD8+ cells in comparison with both old ETH and non-ETH groups (P < 0.01), most probably related to chronic helminthic infections. Surface CCR5 expression, i.e., the percentage of CCR5+ cells and the number of CCR5 molecules/cell, was higher (2- to 3- and 8- to 31-fold, respectively) in activated than in nonactivated CD4+ cells, in all groups. However, CCR5 expression, in both activated and nonactivated CD4+ cells, was higher in both ETH groups than in the non-ETH group. CXCR4 expression was higher in nonactivated CD4+ cells in all groups and was also higher in both ETH groups, in both activated and nonactivated CD4+ cells, than in the non-ETH group. These findings suggest that constitutive factors, in addition to immune activation caused by environmental factors, account for the elevated expression of CCR5 and CXCR4 on CD4+ cells of ETH. This increased HIV coreceptor expression may make ETH more susceptible to HIV infection and may account in part for the rapid spread of AIDS in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa as well.

Effects of homeopathic treatment in women with prementrual syndrome: a pilot study

Alternative therapies in general, and homeopathy in particular, lack clear scientific evaluation of efficacy. Controlled clinical trials are urgently needed, especially for conditions that are not helped by... (AU)

Induction of antigen-specific Th1-biased immune responses by plasmid DNA in schistosoma-infected mice with a preexistent dominant Th2 immune profile.

A requisite for vaccines to confer protection against intracellular infections such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis is their capacity to induce Th1 immune responses. However, they may fail to do so in Africa and South East Asia, where most individuals have a dominant preexistent Th2 immune profile, due to persistent helminthic parasitic infections, which may undermine any Th1 response. It is well established that DNA vaccines induce strong Th1 biased immune responses against an encoded antigen, depending on the route and mode of immunization. Here, we demonstrate that intradermal immunization with plasmid DNA encoding beta-gal (pCMV-LacZ) of Schistosoma-infected mice, with preexistent dominant Th2 immune background, induce a strong Th1 anti-beta-gal response, as opposed to immunized with beta-gal only. Importantly, the established protective Th2 immune response to schistosomes was not disrupted. These findings strongly support the possibility of using plasmid DNA as a Th1 inducing adjuvant when immunizing populations with a strong preexistent Th2 immune profile.

In vitro effects of recombinant TNF-alpha binding protein (rTBP-1) on hematopoiesis of HIV-infected patients.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is believed to contribute to the hematopoietic failure often observed in patients with AIDS. Soluble TNF receptors (sTNFR) compete for TNF-alpha with cell surface receptors and thus may block its activity. The effect of the p55 sTNFR (recombinant TNF-binding protein-1 [rTBP-1]) on the clonogenic growth of hematopoietic progenitor cells from 27 HIV-infected patients was evaluated in comparison with 11 normal study subjects. Peripheral blood-derived, myelopoietic (i.e., granulomonocytic colony-forming cells [GM-CFC]) and erythropoietic (i.e, burst-forming unit, erythroid [BFU-E]) colonies were grown in 10-day semisolid cultures with increasing concentrations of rTBP-1. Significantly, dose-dependent increases occurred in GM-CFC from 17 of 21 AIDS patients and 12 of 21 in BFU-E at rTBP-1 concentrations of 1microg/ml to 25 microg/ml. In contrast, rTBP-1 failed to induce any appreciably increased colony formation in normal cell cultures. In 6 patients treated with highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), TBP-1 alone did not demonstrate the in vitro hematopoiesis-enhancing effect. This study may provide an initial step in development of therapeutic use of TBP as a TNF-alpha antagonist in HIV-infected patients who do not benefit sufficiently from antiretroviral treatment, and in other conditions in which increased levels of TNF-alpha may contribute to hematopoietic deficiencies.

Delavirdine in combination with zidovudine in treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients: evaluation of efficacy and emergence of viral resistance in a randomized, comparative phase III trial. The M/3331/0013B Study Group.

We compared the activity of delavirdine (DLV) plus zidovudine (AZT) (n = 300) with that of AZT (n = 297) against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. DLV exerted a transient antiviral effect, and mutations for resistance to DLV were found in more than 90% of subjects at week 12. The K103N mutation, which confers nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor cross-resistance, was found in 85% of the patients.

Chronic immune activation associated with intestinal helminth infections results in impaired signal transduction and anergy.

Helminthic parasites cause widespread, persistent infections in humans. The immigration of Ethiopians to Israel (a group denoted here by "Eth."), many of them infested with helminths and in a chronic immune-activation state, enabled us to investigate the effects of such immune activation on immune responses. We studied the immune profile and immune functions of 190 Eth. and Israeli non-Eth. (Isr.) highly, partially, or non-immune-activated individuals. Immune cells from highly immune-activated individuals were defective in several signaling responses, all of which were restored gradually following anti-helminthic treatment. These cells showed poor transmembrane signaling, as seen by the phosphorylation of various tyrosine kinases and of the MAPK kinases, ERK1/2 and p38; deficient degradation of phosphorylated IkappaBalpha; increased expression of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4), which appears to block proliferative responses in these cells; decreased beta-chemokine secretion by CD8(+) cells after stimulation; and reduced proliferation to recall antigen stimulation. Highly immune-activated individuals also showed decreased delayed-type skin hypersensitivity responses to recall antigen before deworming. These findings support the notion that chronic helminthic infections cause persistent immune activation that results in hyporesponsiveness and anergy. Such impaired immune functions may diminish the capacity of these individuals to cope with infections and to generate cellular protective immunity after vaccination.