Effects of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-positive adults on new HIV infections among young women: a systematic review protocol

Prevalence, Perception and Predictors of Concomitant Herbal Medicine Use among HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Patients in Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

The use of herbal medicine is common in Ethiopia. However, evidence on the extent and predictors of concomitant use of herbal medicine with conventional treatment among HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients is limited.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the extent of concomitant use of herbal medicine with conventional therapy and associated factors among HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients in Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to March 2020. HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients who visited the health facilities during the study were interviewed face-to-face using a structured and pretested questionnaire. The descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted using SPSS version 25. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

412 patients on conventional treatment were included in this study; 355 (86.2%) were HIV patients, and 57 (13.8%) were TB patients. More than half, 217 (52.7%) participants reported using herbal medicine while on conventional therapy. Among those who claimed to have used herbal medicines, 32 (14.7%) received herbal medicine from traditional healers. About four of five herbal users did not disclose their use to their healthcare providers. The type of health facility on follow-up (P=0.03), disease status (P=0.01), occupation (P=0.02), discontinuing ART (P=0.03), and encountering side (P=0.04) were the determinant factors for the use of herbal medicine among our study participants.

CONCLUSION

In the Metekel Zone, concomitant consumption of herbal medication is common among HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients. Furthermore, most patients did not disclose the healthcare practitioners about their herbal use. Therefore, healthcare practitioners must assess and counsel patients regarding the potential adverse effects and herb-drug interaction to optimize therapy.

Expression and Characterization of Two DNA Constructs Derived from HIV-1-vif in Escherichia coli and Mammalian Cells

Background

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is still a major global concern and no effective therapeutic vaccine has been produced to prevent the problem. Among HIV-1 proteins, vif as a basic cytoplasmic protein of HIV-1 is involved in late stages of viral generation and plays important role in HIV-1 virion replication. It also increases the stability of virion cores, which probably inhibits early degradation of viral entry. Therefore, it seems rational to apply this protein as a vaccine based on its impact on HIV-1 life cycle. This study aimed at cloning, expression and production of vif protein as an HIV-1 vaccine candidate.

Methods

In this study, vif sequence was amplified from pLN4-3 plasmid including HIV-1 vif gene and then cloned in pET23a to generate the recombinant plasmids of pET23a/vif with hexahistidine tags. BL21 competent cells were transformed to obtain the protein of interest. Ni-NTA column was used to purify the protein of interest and western blotting confirmed vif protein using anti-His tag antibody. In order to express the gene of interest in eukaryotic cells, vif was sub-cloned into pEGFP plasmids and HEK 293-T cells were transfected. Flow cytometry was then applied to evaluate GFP expression.

Results

vif protein was expressed in BL21(DE3) strain and identified as a23 kDa band in SDS-PAGE and confirmed by anti-His antibody in western blotting. The purified protein concentration was 173.3 μg/ml using Bradford assay. HEK-293T cells were successfully transfected by recombinant pEGFP plasmids and flow cytometry confirmed the cell transfection.

Conclusion

vif protein can be expressed in mammalian cells and may be a proper protein subunit vaccine candidate against HIV-1.