HIV-1 infection and its progression to AIDS remains a significant global health challenge, particularly for low-income countries. Developing a vaccine to prevent HIV-1 infections has proven to be immensely challenging with complex biological acquisition and infection, unforeseen clinical trial disappointments, and funding issues. This paper discusses important landmarks of progress in HIV-1 vaccine development, various vaccine strategies, and clinical trials.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection represents an ongoing challenging public health epidemic. This is in part because of the socioeconomic burden on low-income countries, lack of access to highly active antiretroviral therapy and other medical treatment, and progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) over the course of years. To control or eradicate this virus, a prophylactic vaccine must be generated. Despite several decades of research, development, and clinical trials, there is not yet an effective immunization. This chapter focuses on unique aspects of the immune response to this infection, challenges of vaccine development, key clinical trials, and promising vaccine strategies.
Aim To assess the impact of untreated dental caries and its severity on the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of Kuwaiti preschool children and their caregivers.Methods Participants were 4- and 5-year-old kindergarten children attending preselected public schools from one of the Governorates in Kuwait. Early childhood caries (ECC) was evaluated by clinical examinations and presented using decayed, missed, filled teeth/surface (dmft/dmfs). The clinical consequences of untreated dental caries were assessed using the pufa (pulp, ulcers, fistula, abscess) index for primary teeth. A structured questionnaire obtained demographic information of children and their caregivers. OHRQoL was assessed using the Arabic version of Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (A-ECOHIS).Results Among the 334 participants, 171 were kindergarten level-1 (KG1), and 163 were level-2 (KG2). The overall prevalence of dental caries was 78.9% for KG1 children and 67.4% for KG2 children. Decayed teeth were the main component for both dmft (84%) and dmfs (68%). The total mean (SD) pufa score was 0.54 (1.5), and about 19.2% of participants had at least one tooth with pufa > 0. A total of 207 A-ECOHIS were completed. The family impact score was significantly higher for children with a dmft score of 1 or more (p = 0.023). Child impact section scores were significantly higher with the increasing degrees of untreated caries (dt) (p = 0.004). The child and family impact sections had significant scores for children with one or more PUFA or discolored anterior teeth (p < 0.001).Conclusion The severity of untreated dental caries and caries experience had a negative impact on the OHRQoL of Kuwaiti prescool children and their families. Using the pufa index had provided additional information about the effect of the caries severity on the OHRQoL than assessing the caries experience alone.
An outbreak of phytoplasma microorganisms was observed in date palms grown in Kuwait. Phytoplasma are widespread prokaryotic microorganisms that infect palm trees, ornamentals and some horticultural crops. It sometimes causes lethal yellowing diseases in palm trees, which also multiplies in the host plant grown in tissue culture and spread infections by insect vectors. The presence of phytoplasma was detected by using both transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Fluorescence microscopy was used to detect DNA contents of the causal microorganism. Tetracycline therapy was carried out as a further evidence for the presence of the phytoplasma and as an attempt to control the disease. Infected young palms treated with tetracycline‐HCl at early stages of the phytoplasmal infection showed remission of the yellowing symptoms. We show in this work that by injecting the infected young palm trees with tetracycline antibiotic the treated plants were recovered. The use of antibiotic treatment is valuable for the control of yellows disease in date palms especially in the areas where the pathogen is endemic and causes extreme crop losses. Companies producing date palm trees in tissue culture and growers will especially benefit from this knowledge in the development of control strategies for yellow diseases that are caused by phytoplasma.
Messenger RNA has been studied by everyone, from vaccine developers to high school biology students, since the discovery of its isolation in 1961 [...]
1.6%, p=0.045) (Table 1). Male IgG4-RD patients (n=5) as a group showed a significantly higher average myocardial T1 value relative to the reference group, with 3/5 male patients having an abnormally high myocardial T1 (>2SD above limit of normal). Female IgG4-RD patients (n=6) had similar and normal myocardial T1 values to the reference group (Table 1). Seven of the 11 IgG4-RD patients showed LGE, with 6 of these in a non-ischaemic pattern (Table 1). ECV was not statistically different from reference values (29.5 ± 2.5% vs 27.9 ± 2.5% reference value, p=0.192) (Table 1). Conclusion Patients with IgG4-RD in this cohort demonstrated signs of cardiovascular involvement, including subclinical systolic dysfunction, elevated native T1 times and myocardial fibrosis. Future work in larger cohorts should seek to further define the novel cardiovascular phenotypes of this condition including the effects of systemic immunosuppressive therapy on cardiovascular involvement.
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