In vitro anti-HIV and -HSV activity and safety of sodium rutin sulfate as a microbicide candidate

Sodium rutin sulfate (SRS) is a sulfated rutin modified from the natural flavonol glycoside rutin. Here, we investigated its in vitro anti-HIV and -HSV activities and its cytotoxic profile. Fifty percent inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of SRS against HIV-1 X4 virus IIIB, HIV-1 R5 isolates Ada-M and Ba-L were 2.3 +/- 0.2, 4.5 +/- 2.0 and 8.5 +/- 3.8 mu M with a selectivity index (SI) of 563, 575 and 329, respectively. Its IC50 against primary R5 HIV-1 isolate from Yunnan province in China was 13.1 +/- 5.5 mu M, with a Sl of 197. In contrast, unsulfated rutin had no activity against any of the HIV-1 isolates tested. Further study indicated that SRS blocked viral entry and virus-cell fusion likely through interacting with the HIV- I envelope glycoprotein. SRS also demonstrated some activity against human herpes simplex virus (HSV) with an IC50 of 88.3 +/- 0.1 mu M and a Sl of 30. The 50% cytotoxicity concentration (CC50) of SRS was >3.0 mM, as determined in human genital ME 180, HeLa and primary human foreskin fibroblast cells. Minimum inhibitory concentration of SRS for vaginal lactobacilli was >3.0 mM. These results collectively indicate that SRS represents a novel candidate for anti-HIV-1/HSV microbicide development. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Formal specification and refinement of a safe train control function

Motivated by the design and development challenges of the BART case study, an approach for developing and analyzing a formal model for reactive systems is presented. The approach makes use of a domain specific language for specifying control algorithms able to satisfy competing properties such as safety and optimality. The domain language, called SPC, offers several key abstractions such as the state, the profile, and the constraint to facilitate problem specification. Using a high-level program transformation system such as HATS being developed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, specifications in this modelling language can be transformed to ML code. The resulting executable specification can be further refined by applying generic transformations to the abstractions provided by the domain language. Problem dependent transformations utilizing the domain specific knowledge and properties may also be applied. The result is a significantly more efficient implementation which can be used for simulation and gaining deeper insight into design decisions and various control policies. The correctness of transformations can be established using a rewrite-rule based induction theorem prover Rewrite Rule Laboratory developed at the University of New Mexico.

Safety of tetanus toxoid in pregnant women: A hospital-based case-control study of congenital anomalies

Reported are the results of the Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC), a hospital-based case-control study of 34 293 malformed and 34 477 matched nonmalformed newborn controls. No statistical differences were found between the malformed and control groups, exposed or not exposed to tetanus toroid.