Polimorfismos de nucleotídeo simples (SNPs) em genes codificadores de citocinas e suas correlações com parâmetros clínicos e laboratoriais de pacientes portadores do vírus da imunodeficiência humana

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Perfil epidemiológico dos doadores de sangue da Fundação Hemopa em Belém-Pará, infectados pelo Vírus da imunodeficiência humana

O estudo do perfil dos doadores de sangue com sorologia positiva para o HIV é essencial para rever os métodos que têm sido empregados na triagem clínica, para que o cumprimento rigoroso das normas estabelecidas para a exclusão de candidatos à doação seja possível. A avaliação desse perfil foi realizada através de um estudo, no qual, doadores de sangue confirmadamente positivos para o HIV-1 (n=96) foram comparados com um grupo controle de doadores com resultados falso-positivos no teste de triagem para o HIV (n=224). Esta pesquisa, realizada com foco na segurança transfusional e na redução do risco residual de transmissão do virus por transfusão, foi feita no período de 01 de janeiro de 2006 a 31 de março de 2008. Os dados demográficos e os potenciais fatores de risco para a infecção pelo HIV foram avaliados em entrevistas pós-doação. A omissão de fatores de risco na triagem clínica - que deveriam ter gerado recusa dos doadores - foi relatada em 74,69% dos entrevistados. Na análise multivariada os fatores de risco para a infecção pelo HIV foram: doadores homens que mantiveram relação sexual com outros homens, doadores que tiveram quatro ou mais parceiros sexuais nos últimos 12 meses, doadores usuários de drogas ilícitas, doadores que fizeram uso inconsistente de preservativo nas relações sexuais, todos com significância estatística (p<0,0001) e chance de risco maior que 1,0 (OR>1,0). Conclui-se que estes fatores elencados acima são importantes na transmissão de HIV por transfusão de sangue e que os HSH continuam sendo os maiores preditores da infecção pelo HIV na população estudada.

A sexualidade de mulheres vivendo com AIDS: contribuições da psicanálise

A feminização do HIV/aids é uma realidade no Brasil, de acordo com os dados epidemiológicos do Ministério da Saúde. Este trabalho fundamenta-se no referencial da psicanálise e apresenta o estudo de caso de Larissa, paciente do ambulatório do Serviço de Assistência Especializada em HIV/aids do Hospital Universitário João de Barros Barreto. Partiu-se da hipótese que as mulheres que vivem com o vírus HIV/aids, podem apresentar consequências subjetivas, diante de um diagnóstico traumático associado a tabus como morte e sexualidade. Para Larissa ter aids significava rejeição, discriminação e abandono pelo companheiro e pais. Nos atendimentos trouxe sua preocupação em como contar ao companheiro sobre o vírus, temendo sua reação agressiva, além de relatos sobre sua infância e adolescência de conflitos com os pais, das agressões por parte do pai, e queixas em torno de sua mãe, principalmente voltadas a nada ter-lhe dito sobre sexualidade. Em seus relacionamentos amorosos com homens com problemas com a lei, pode-se pensar, segundo anuncia a teoria psicanalítica, em seu desamparo, conduzindo-a ao masoquismo. O ideal de amor de Larissa junto a esses parceiros aponta para aspectos de um amor romântico, em que esperava encontrar no parceiro proteção e confiança. Ressalto que esta pesquisa aponta ainda, um mal estar em falar da sexualidade, corpo e desejo feminino entre mães e filhas, ou seja, ausência de educação sexual que, no caso de Larissa, deixou-a à mercê dos parceiros, sem recursos para se proteger de doenças como a aids e, da gravidez na adolescência. O relato de Larissa está em consonância com os de outras pacientes mulheres vivendo com HIV, investigadas nesta pesquisa, e pode servir de alerta sobre a problemática apresentada nos dados do Boletim Epidemiológico do Brasil 2012, onde é crescente a incidência de casos de infecção pelo HIV em jovens de 13 a 19 anos, sendo as mulheres em maior número. A escuta clinica, para Larissa, ao poder falar de sua sexualidade, permitiu encontrar os significados dos aspectos traumáticos vivenciados em sua infância e adolescência, encontrar-se com seus conflitos internos e seu sentimento de desamparo, pensar sua relação com a mãe e suas filhas e, finalmente, afirmar que estava “aprendendo a ser mulher”, o que significava, para ela, estar “mais preparada” para a vida.

Stability-indicating thin-layer chromatographic method for determination of darunavir in complex darunavir-beta-cyclodextrin in the presence of its degradation products

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Mycobacterium tuberculosis population structure shift in a 5-year molecular epidemiology surveillance follow-up study in a low endemic agro-industrial setting in São Paulo, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Characteristics, complexation and analytical methods of darunavir

What is it? Darunavir is a protease inhibitor used in the treatment of HIV infection. It is an important drug of therapy cocktail for patients infected with the virus. On the market there are darunavir ethanolate tablets of 75, 150, 300, 400, 600 and 800mg, because this is the most stable form. It is commercialized by Janssen-Cilag with the name PrezistaTM. Why we started? This drug has low water solubility and poor bioavailability, therefore requires administration in doses relatively high to the success of the therapeutic effect. The complexation of drugs by using cyclodextrin is welcome in this respect to improve the solubility and hence increase the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. A monograph about this compound has not been described, thus it is an extremely important quality control of darunavir to demonstrate its effectiveness and safety. What we did? Some existing analytical techniques have been discussed in this manuscript, focusing on bioanalytical and pharmaceutical quality control applications. What we found? This review showed the published analytical methods reported for the determination of darunavir and discuss about its characteristics and complexation with cyclodextrin.

Influence of Darunavir: β-cyclodextrin complex on the solubility of Darunavir

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Comparative study over methods developed for quantification of darunavir in tablets by environmental friendly infrared and capillary electrophoretic techniques

Darunavir, a protease inhibitor used in the treatment of HIV infection, presents few methods for its determination in pharmaceuticals. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy offers the possibility of obtaining spectra relatively quickly, providing interesting information, analytically, qualitatively or quantitatively. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) performs separations of high efficiency in shorter time with reagents and samples in small quantity. These two methods are cost-benefitted when we evaluate the green level and the cost of analysis. Faster and cheaper methods without generating organic waste by IR and CE for the quantification of darunavir were developed and validated, focusing socioeconomic impact of analytical decisions. If the cost of acquisition, maintenance, production, analysis and conditioning of drugs and pharmaceuticals is high, consequently the price of this product in the market will be higher and it cannot be accessible to the patient. Treatment failure not only affects the quality of life of patients, but also contributes significantly to the economic burden of the health system. In this context there is a tool called Analysis of the Life Cycle, which comes to make us think in a multidimensional way focusing the whole, the parts and especially the interaction among the parts of a system.

Validation of a stability indicating capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of darunavir in tablets and comparison with the of infrared absorption spectroscopic method

Darunavir (DRV) is a protease inhibitor used in the treatment of HIV infection, which constitutes a keystone in the therapy of patients infected with this virus. There is no monograph described in official compendia. The literature provides few methods of analysis for the determination of DRV in pharmaceuticals which include TLC, IR, UPLC, HPLC, HPLC-MS, HPLC-MS/MS, but there are no reports of the use of capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the determination of this drug. Thus, this research proposed the development and validation of a CE method for the determination of DRV in tablets. The method was completely validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines, showing linearity, selectivity, precision, accuracy and robustness. The migration was achieved in less than 1 minute using fused-silica uncoated capillary with an id of 50 μm and total length of 21 cm and voltage of +20 kV. The sample injection was performed in the hydrodynamic mode. The method was linear over the concentration range of 50-200 μg mL-1 with correlation coefficient 0.9998 and limits of detection and quantification of 7.29 and 22.09 μg mL-1, respectively. The drug was subjected to acid, base, oxidation and photolysis degradation. Degradation products were found interfering with the assay of DRV, therefore the method can be regarded as stability indicating. The validated method is useful and appropriate for the routine quality control of DRV in tablets.

Complexation between darunavir ethanolate and beta cyclodextrin: experimental and theoretical studies

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Development and validation of infrared spectroscopy method for the determination of darunavir in tabets

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Prevalência de infecções sexualmente transmissíveis e de alterações da microbiota vaginal e fatores associados em mulheres que fazem sexo com mulheres

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a term that encompasses various diseases caused by bacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, including M tuberculosis, M bovis, M africanum, and other mycobacterial species. Whereas M tuberculosis infection is largely spread from human to human, M bovis infection has been identified as a zoonotic disease with most cases of human infection attributable to animal sources. The mycobacteria other than tuberculosis complex (MOTT), which includes M avium subsp avium and M avium subsp intracellulare isolated from animals, has been isolated from immune-compromised humans (ie, those with human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection), but seldom from immunocompetent humans. Recently, there has been increased interest among public health officials in drug-resistant strains of M tuberculosis, M bovis, and M avium because several have been isolated from HIV-infected and nonimmuno-compromised humans.

Depletion of Langerhans cells in the tongue from patients with advanced-stage acquired immune deficiency syndrome: relation to opportunistic infections

Aims: To quantify and compare the expression of Langerhans cells (LCs) in the tongue mucosa of AIDS patients with different opportunistic infections, and from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and non-AIDS patients with normal tongues, using autopsy material. Methods and results: Human leucocyte antigen D-related (HLA-DR), CD1a and CD83 antibodies were used to identify and quantify LCs by immunohistochemistry in tongue tissue of 40 AIDS patients (10 with lingual candidiasis, 10 with lingual herpes, 10 with oral hairy leukoplakia and 10 with no lesions) and 23 tongues from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)negative control patients. Quantification was performed by means of conventional morphometry in four different regions (anterior, middle, posterior and lateral) of the tongue. The results were expressed as positive cells per area of epithelium. The AIDS patients presented a lower density of CD1a(+) cells (P < 0.001), HLA-DR (P < 0.003) and CD83 (P < 0.001) in all regions of the tongue compared to the non-AIDS control group. However, no differences in any of the markers were found when AIDS patients with different opportunistic infections were compared with AIDS patients without tongue infection. Conclusions: Advanced stage AIDS patients showed a depletion of LCs in the tongue mucosa. HIV infection induces cytopathic changes in LCs, contributing to their depletion regardless of the presence of oral infections.

Prior history of sexually transmitted diseases in women living with AIDS in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Objectives: To describe the epidemiological profile, risk behaviors, and the prior history of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in women living with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Methods: Cross-sectional study, performed at the Centro de Referencia e Treinamento em DST/AIDS of Sao Paulo. The social, demographic, behavioral, and clinical data such as age, schooling, marital status, age at first sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, parity, use of drugs, time of HIV diagnosis, CD4 count, and viral load determination were abstracted from the medical records of women living with AIDS who had gynecological consultation scheduled in the period from June 2008 to May 2009. Results: Out of 710 women who were scheduled to a gynecological consultation during the period of the study, 598 were included. Previous STD was documented for 364 (60.9%; 95% CI: 56.9%-64.8%) women. The associated factors with previous STDs and their respective risks were: human development index (HDI) <0.50 (ORaj = 5.5; 95% CI: 2.8-11.0); non-white race (ORaj = 5.2; 95% CI: 2.5-11.0); first sexual intercourse at or before 15 years of age (ORaj = 4.4; 95% CI: 2.3-8.3); HIV infection follow-up time of nine years or more (ORaj = 4.2; 95% CI: 2.3-7.8)]; number of sexual partners during the entire life between three and five partners (ORaj = 2.2; 95% CI: 1.1-4.6), and six or more sexual partners (ORaj = 3.9; 95% CI: 1.9-8.0%); being a sex worker (ORaj = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1-3.1). Conclusions: A high prevalence of a prior history of STDs in the studied population was found. It is essential to find better ways to access HIV infection prevention, so that effective interventions can be more widely implemented. (C) 2012 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.