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INTRODUCTION: Since the emergence of antiretroviral therapy, the survival of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus has increased. Non-adherence to this therapy is directly related to treatment failure, which allows the emergence of resistant viral strains. METHODS: A retrospective descriptive study of the antiretroviral dispensing records of 229 patients from the Center for Health Care, University Hospital, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, was conducted between January and December 2009. RESULTS: The study aimed to evaluate patient compliance and determine if there was an association between non-adherence and the therapy. Among these patients, 63.8% were men with an average age of 44.0 ± 9.9 years. The most used treatment was a combination of 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors with 1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (55.5%) or with 2 protease inhibitors (28.8%). It was found that patients taking lopinavir/ritonavir with zidovudine and lamivudine had a greater frequency of inadequate treatment than those taking atazanavir with zidovudine and lamivudine (85% and 83.3%, respectively). Moreover, when the combination of zidovudine/ lamivudine was used, the patients were less compliant (χ2 = 4.468, 1 degree of freedom, p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients failed to correctly adhere to their treatment; therefore, it is necessary to implement strategies that lead to improved compliance, thus ensuring therapeutic efficacy and increased patient survival.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of xylitol on J774A.1 macrophage adhesion. Adhesion consisted of a three-hour interval, at room temperature, followed by washing and cell incubation at 37ºC/5% CO2/ 48h. Xylitol was used to treat the cells either before (for 24h) or after the cell incubation (for 48h) at 5% as final concentration in both the situations. It was found that xylitol was effective in preventing the adhesion in both the conditions in spite of the former being 100-fold greater and significant (p < 0.001). The results pointed to an important xylitol action on macrophage adhesion, which should be further investigated as an inflammatory control.

The present study aimed to evaluate xylitol's antimicrobial and anti-adherence activities on Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739) and on another clinical strain enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). In vitro minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test and adhesion assays were performed using 0.5, 2.5 and 5.0% xylitol. It was found that xylitol did not have antimicrobial properties on these strains. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that the slides treated with xylitol had a significant reduction in the number of bacilli and the inhibition of microbial adhesion was probably the xylitol's mechanism of action. Xylitol could be a possible alternative on the control of E. coli infections.

Approximately 170 million people are chronic carriers of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Patients with chronic hepatitis C are currently treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV). A genome-wide association with PEG-IFN/RBV treatment response and a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs12979860) has been identified near the interleukin 28B gene that encodes interferon-λ-3. In this paper, we describe an innovative, fast, and low-cost multiplex polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primers that detects the rs12979860 polymorphism. The assay is internally controlled and does not require the use of restriction endonucleases or special equipment. Moreover, the assay decreases costs, being about 40% cheaper than direct sequencing methods.

Doenças ectoparasitárias como a escabiose, a pediculose, a tungíase e a larva migrans cutânea são epidêmicas em inúmeras comunidades carentes no Brasil e seu controle efetivo é um desafio para a saúde pública. Embora a permetrina seja um dos medicamentos aprovados pelo Food and Drug Administration para o tratamento da pediculose, não há um método oficial disponível para a realização do controle da qualidade deste produto em loção capilar de uso humano. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver e validar um método analítico sensível, específico, preciso e exato para esta análise, seguindo os critérios descritos na Resolução no 899/ 2003 da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA). A cromatografia líquida de alta eficiência (HPLC) com detector diode array (comprimento de onda = 235 nm) foi empregada na determinação de cis-permetrina em loção capilar, visando implementar um sistema de controle da qualidade em laboratórios analíticos. A cis-permetrina e a substância utilizada como padrão interno (PI), o cloridrato de nafazolina, foram separados em coluna analítica S5W (4,6 x 150 mm) Waters Spherisorb® e eluídos isocraticamente (fluxo de 1,2 mL/min). A cis-permetrina e o PI foram caracterizados pelos tempos de retenção de 1,52 e 8,66 minutos, respectivamente. O método mostrou-se linear na faixa de 1,6 a 127,5 μg/mL e nos estudos de precisão intra e interensaio foram obtidos coeficiente de variação inferiores a 5%, calculados a partir dos resultados. A exatidão média do método foi de 103%. Os limites de detecção e quantificação foram 1,6 μg/mL e 2,4 μg/mL respectivamente. A cis-permetrina manteve-se estável por 24 horas à temperatura ambiente; por 15 dias a 4ºC e 30 dias a -20ºC. O método mostrou-se simples e apropriado para a determinação de cis-permetrina em loção capilar.