The transmission of HIV is shaped by individual-environment interactions. Social epidemiologic approaches thus seek to capture the dynamic and reciprocal relationships of individual-environment interactions in the production and reduction of risk. This presents considerable methodological, theoretical and disciplinary challenges. Drawing upon four research case studies, we consider how methods and concepts in the social and epidemiologic sciences might be brought together towards understanding HIV risk as an effect of social, cultural and political condition. The case studies draw upon different combinations of methods (qualitative, ethnographic and quantitative) and disciplines (sociology, anthropology and epidemiology) in different social contexts of HIV vulnerability (street settings in Russia, Serbia and North America and a cross-border setting in Mexico) among a range of marginalised high-risk populations (injection drug users and female and transvestite sex workers). These case studies illustrate the relevance of the social science concepts of "structural violence" and "structural vulnerability" for a social epidemiology of HIV risk. They also explore how social epidemiologic work can benefit from the mixing of social science methods and theories. We contend that social epidemiology cannot advance in its understanding of structural vulnerability without embracing and relying upon ethnographic and qualitative approaches. We put forward the linked concepts of "structural violence," "structural vulnerability" and "risk environment" as building blocks for a theory-informed social epidemiology of HIV risk among marginalised populations.

uRNA and Cxbladder showed improved sensitivity for the detection of urothelial carcinoma compared to the NMP22 assays. Stratification with Cxbladder provides a potential method to prioritize patients for the management of waiting lists.

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BackgroundInjection drug use remains a primary driver of HIV and HCV-related harms globally. However, there is a gap in efforts to prevent individuals from transitioning into injecting. People who inject drugs (PWID) play a key role in the transition of others into injecting, and while behavioral interventions have been developed to address this phenomenon, socio-structural approaches remain unexplored. To that end, we hypothesize that certain interventions designed to reduce injecting-related risk behaviors may also reduce the risk that PWID expose and introduce others into injecting. Identifying the preventive potential of existing interventions will inform broader efforts to prevent injecting and related harms.MethodsThe Preventing Injecting by Modifying Existing Responses (PRIMER) study is a multi-country mixed methods study with an aim to investigate whether specific interventions (e.g., opioid substitution therapy, supervised injection facilities, stable housing, incarceration environments) and related factors (e.g., public injecting and gender) influence the likelihood that PWID initiate others into injecting. This study will (1) investigate the PWID participation in injection initiation; (2) identify factors influencing the risk that PWID expose others to or facilitate injection initiation; (3) describe drug scene roles that increase the risk of PWID facilitating injection initiation; and (4) evaluate the impact of structural, social, or biomedical interventions on the risk that PWID facilitate injection initiation. It does so by pooling observational data from cohort studies of PWID in six cities: Vancouver, Canada; San Diego, USA; Tijuana, Mexico; Paris, Marseille, and Bordeaux, France.ResultsTeam members are conducting a prospective, multi-site study of PWID (n = 3050) in North America and France that includes quantitative and qualitative data collection through four separate cohort studies of PWID (San Diego, STAHR II; Tijuana, El Cuete IV; Vancouver, V-DUS; Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris and Strasbourg, COSINUS).ConclusionsPRIMER is the largest study of injection initiation to date and the first to investigate structural approaches to preventing injection drug use initiation. Findings have the potential to inform the development and scale up of new and existing interventions to prevent transitions into injecting.Trial registrationPreventing Injecting by Modifying Existing Responses (PRIMER), NIDA DP2-DA040256-01.

In previous studies, we documented that galectin-3 (M(r) approximately 30,000) is a pre-mRNA splicing factor. Recently, galectin-3 was identified as a component of a nuclear and cytoplasmic complex, the survival of motor neuron complex, through its interaction with Gemin4. To test the possibility that galectin-3 may shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm, human fibroblasts (LG-1) were fused with mouse fibroblasts (3T3). The monoclonal antibody NCL-GAL3, which recognizes human galectin-3 but not the mouse homolog, was used to monitor the localization of human galectin-3 in heterodikaryons. Human galectin-3 localized to both nuclei of a large percentage of heterodikaryons. Addition of the antibiotic leptomycin B, which inhibits nuclear export of galectin-3, decreased the percentage of heterodikaryons showing human galectin-3 in both nuclei. In a parallel experiment, mouse 3T3 fibroblasts, which express galectin-3, were fused with fibroblasts derived from a mouse in which the galectin-3 gene was inactivated. Mouse galectin-3 localized to both nuclei of a large percentage of heterodikaryons. Again, addition of leptomycin B restricted the presence of galectin-3 to one nucleus of a heterodikaryon. The results from both heterodikaryon assays suggest that galectin-3 can exit one nucleus, travel through the cytoplasm, and enter the second nucleus, matching the definition of shuttling.