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Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the degree to which Uganda's public universities feel obligated to adopt socially responsible leadership practices and, in turn, live up to the expectations of their stakeholders. A crucial component of higher education institutions is socially responsible leadership in universities. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 22 leaders of Uganda's public universities participated in semi-structured interviews that the researchers conducted. Four main themes emerged from thematic analysis of the gathered data. Findings: The researchers discover that although the leaders are willing to act appropriately in accordance with social norms, they do not fully exercise the four dimensions (moral excellence in character, stakeholder collaboration, personal abilities and moral direction). The respondents also went on to explain that they were unsure about how to start helping their societies function better as a whole. Originality/value: As far as the researchers are aware, this is the first study to look empirically into socially responsible leadership practices in a university setting (public universities in this case), especially in developing and Orient countries.

This article investigates the impact of illegal fishing on sustainable fisheries, and its implications for youth unemployment, in Uganda. The qualitative study drew on the knowledge, attitudes, practices and experiences of young fishers regarding their role as active citizens in sustainable fishing. It also explored youth entrepreneurship through lifelong learning as a potential solution to the challenges involved. Data were collected using participatory action research. Interviews were conducted with thirteen young fishers (aged 22-35) from Kigungu fishing ground on Lake Victoria, four of their spouses (some of whom were fish smokers), and two fishers from Gaba fishing ground (as a comparison). A focus group discussion was also held with five local leaders of Kigungu fishing ground. The authors used a social constructivist theoretical framework to help them understand the perspectives of young fishers and consider potential solutions and opportunities for lifelong learning. Their findings highlight manipulative employment terms and expensive legal fishing methods as significant barriers to sustainable fishing. Furthermore, fishers expressed uncertainty about starting their alternative enterprises, compounded by a sense of hopelessness and a lack of social capital, as victims of a worldwide problem they are being punished for but cannot solve on their own. There is a need to engage young fishers in discussions surrounding alternative livelihoods and collective solutions.

We investigate gender disparities in the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market outcomes of skilled Ugandan workers. Leveraging a high-frequency panel dataset, we find that the lockdowns imposed in Uganda reduced employment by 69% for women and by 45% for men, generating a previously nonexistent gender gap of 20 p.p. Eighteen months after the onset of the pandemic, the gap persisted: while men quickly recovered their pre-pandemic career trajectories, 10% of the previously employed women definitively separated from the labor market, and another 35% remained occasionally employed. Additionally, the lockdowns permanently shifted female workers to sectors misaligned with their skill sets, relocated them into agriculture and other unskilled sectors, and widened the gender pay gap. Pre-pandemic sorting of women into economic sectors subject to the strongest restrictions and childcare responsibilities induced by schools’ prolonged closure only explain up to 57% of the employment gap.

Most universities in Uganda encourage memorization as the predominant method of learning. This has been partly linked to limited practical pedagogical skills among educators, to effectively engage students to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Consequently, students are not well prepared for the world after university. WhatsApp Enabled Learning (WAEL) has been found to support approaches to learning that promote development of HOTS, like inquiry, creativity, critical reflection and dialogue. Although many universities in Uganda have been using LMSs, there is little evidence that use of an LMS has enhanced development of HOTS. While the Ugandan society is catching on fast with use of WhatsApp due to increased access to mobile technology devices and Internet connectivity, use of WhatsApp in education is still limited. Additionally, there is limited research on the benefits of WAEL to development of HOTS in African countries. This paper examines how WAEL can facilitate development of HOTS through a general literature analysis and using the Activity Theory (AT) framework. The results show that WhatsApp has a great potential to support development of HOTS due to its affordances such as ubiquity, and AT provides a systematic and practical way to demonstrate this potential and how it can be applied.

We report on the implementation experience of carrying out data collection and other activities for a public health evaluation study on whether U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) investment improved utilization of health services and health system strengthening in Uganda. The retrospective study period focused on the PEPFAR scale-up, from mid-2005 through mid-2011, a period of expansion of PEPFAR programing and health services. We visited 315 health care facilities in Uganda in 2011 and 2012 to collect routine health management information system data forms, as well as to conduct interviews with health system leaders. An earlier phase of this research project collected data from all 112 health district headquarters, reported elsewhere. This article describes the lessons learned from collecting data from health care facilities, project management, useful technologies, and mistakes. We used several new technologies to facilitate data collection, including portable document scanners, smartphones, and web-based data collection, along with older but reliable technologies such as car batteries for power, folding tables to create space, and letters of introduction from appropriate authorities to create entrée. Research in limited-resource settings requires an approach that values the skills and talents of local people, institutions and government agencies, and a tolerance for the unexpected. The development of personal relationships was key to the success of the project. We observed that capacity building activities were repaid many fold, especially in data management and technology.

This study investigated how leadership was exercised at Kyambogo University [KyU] (in Uganda) during its formation that involved the merger of three tertiary institutions and the period immediately thereafter. This was regarded as a period of significant transformation at the institution. The study was prompted by the rampant strikes and protests that the students and staff staged against the University's leaders during that time. The researchers used the descriptive cross-sectional sample survey design to collect both qualitative and quantitative data through the use of surveys and interview methods from 44 administrators, 201 academic staff, 345 students, and 230 support staff. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis techniques. The study findings indicated that, at that time, KyU leadership lacked a shared vision and common strategies for managing transformation besides being non-collegial and heavily bureaucratic in nature. Secondly, the University was bedeviled with a myriad of leadership challenges related to, amongst others, personality clashes amongst leaders; the problem of red-tape in decision making; the shortage of funds and other resources; and the interference by external agents in the affairs of the University. However, several efforts were also made to avert the crises that the institution experienced at that time. It was thus concluded that the kind of leadership exercised during that time of transformation was partly responsible for the challenges experienced then and probably today. The researchers therefore recommended that the University managers should often develop a shared vision, employ a collegial kind of leadership, and be supportive to different units as well as individuals in the institution.

Faculty quality is a key variable in the quality of teaching and learning. However, although learning is the basis for teaching, the circumstances under which faculty learn largely remain unexplained. This paper focuses on the opportunities and threats to learning by faculty at Uganda Management Institute (UMI). The paper is based on a study of the evaluations completed by faculty at a pedagogical workshop organised to strengthen their teaching knowledge, skills and attitudes. A case study confirmatory research design was used to identify and analyze the opportunities and threats affecting learning based on the theories of constructivism, social constructivism and the principles of adult learning. Findings confirm that learning opportunities and threats are dependent on the degree of support from significant others, the content, methods and environment (Reigeluth & Carr-Chellman, 2009; Aldridge & Fraser, 1999; Seaman & Fellenz, 1989). Faculty were more critical of the strengths and weaknesses of the facilitators, methods and environment than they were of the content and of themselves as learners. The evaluation of the former focused on the conduct and management of these constructs than on the constructs themselves. Limited self-reflection and criticism could be viewed from a wider Ugandan cultural perspective. Whereas the teaching of content could be evaluated differently, content itself is a context-independent variable, and therefore a stable phenomenon (Ssentamu, 2010). Based on the findings, higher education institutions could holistically focus on colleagues, facilitators, content, methods and environment as key constructs in enhancing faculty learning both at strategic and operational levels.

With the urge to Africanise the curriculum following colonisation, many African countries are still wary of the educational initiatives from the developed countries. However, with the clear curriculum design and development guidelines provided by various national Quality Assurance bodies, African countries need not fear migrating curricula from developed countries. Drawing from the workshop experiences, authors of this paper illustrate the steps involved in migrating, contextualising and adapting a professional field of study in a multi-institutional partnership, with particular focus on the competence-based curriculum design and development process. The process of migrating higher education (HE) Administration, Leadership and Management curriculum taught at the University of Tampere (Finland) to a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education Leadership and Management (PGDHELM) curriculum at Uganda Management Institute (UMI) in partnership with the Makerere University and the University of Helsinki involved undertaking a needs assessment, training of trainers and adapting the programme to the UMI context. The training of trainers provided opportunity for the trainees to reflect and generate information on the status of HE leadership and management in Uganda. The curriculum was institutionalised by aligning it to the vision, mission and profile of UMI in the context of the existing internal and external Quality Assurance frameworks. This paper underscores the importance of involving stakeholders, taking into account national and institutional requirements in all the steps when migrating an academic curriculum.

This paper reviews the ideological trends in initial teacher education curricula in East African universities during the post-independent and contemporary times. From the mid-1960s and mid-1980s, initial teacher education curricula were integrated and harmonised with support from the East African Community whose efforts were coordinated by the Inter-University Council for East Africa. With the breakup of the Community in 1977, each independent state pursued its own educational strategy. However, underfunding of the public sector by governments, introduction of market-friendly reforms under the World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme in 1987 and the de-regularisation policies led to the liberalisation of public services, including education. Liberalisation affected among others, the quality of the initial teacher education curricula. Consequently, national councils and commissions for higher education were established to control standards in higher education, and the Inter-University Council for East Africa was revived to standardise and harmonise educational standards at regional level. The review shows that over the past five decades, the structure and organisation of initial teacher education curricula has continuously adjusted itself and been adjusted to a hybrid culture blending classical humanism, utilitarianism, social re-constructionism, market and global ideologies. Comparable ideological inclinations at socio-economic and political levels have influenced this trend in the region. The paper highlights the implications of such trends on the future of initial teacher education in the region.

Introduction: Tight junctions (TJs) serve as permeability filters between the internal and external cellular environment. A large number of proteins have been identified to be localized at the TJs. Due to limitations in tissue collection, TJs in the male genital tract have been understudied., Methods: We analysed the transcriptomics of 132 TJ genes in foreskin tissue of men requesting voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) and enrolled in the Combined HIV Adolescent Prevention Study (CHAPS) trial conducted in South Africa and Uganda (NCT03986970). The trial evaluated the dose requirements for event-driven HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with emtricitabine-tenofovir (FTC-TDF) or emtricitabine-tenofovir alafenamide (FTC-TAF) during insertive sex. A total of 144 participants were randomized to either control arm or one of 8 PrEP arms (n=16/arm), receiving oral FTC-TDF or FTC-TAF over one or two days. Following in vivo oral PrEP dosing and VMMC, the expression level of three important TJ proteins (CLDN-1, OCN and ZO-1) was measured ex vivo in foreskin tissue by Western blot. The expression of cytokine genes implicated in TJ regulation was determined. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare TJ gene expression and protein levels by type of PrEP received, and Spearman's correlation coefficients were calculated to assess whether TJ gene expression levels were related to cytokine gene levels or to PrEP drug concentrations and their active intracellularly phosphorylated metabolites., Results: A high level of expression in foreskin tissue was found for 118 (of 132) TJ genes analysed; this finding contributed to create a map of TJ components within the male genital tract. Importantly, PrEP regimens tested in the CHAPS trial did not affect the expression of TJ genes and the analysed proteins in the foreskin; thus, further supporting the safety of this prevention strategy against HIV-1 transmission during insertive sex. Additionally, we identified the level of several cytokines' genes to be correlated to TJ gene expression: among them, IL-18, IL-33 and VEGF., Discussion: TJs can limit viral entry into target cells; to affect this biological function viruses can reduce the expression of TJ proteins. Our study, on the expression and regulation of TJs in the foreskin, contribute important knowledge for PrEP safety and further design of HIV-1 prophylaxis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Webb, Petkov, Yun, Else, Lebina, Serwanga, Pillay, Seiphetlo, Mugaba, Namubiru, Odoch, Opoka, Ssemata, Kaleebu, Khoo, Martinson, Fox, Gray, Herrera and Chiodi.)

Lifestyle factors like poor maternal diet or antibiotic exposure disrupt early life microbiome assembly in infants, increasing the risk of severe lower respiratory infections (sLRI). Our prior studies in mice indicated that a maternal low-fibre diet (LFD) exacerbates LRI severity in infants by impairing recruitment of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) and consequently attenuating expansion of lung regulatory T (Treg) cells during pneumonia virus of mice (PVM) infection. Here, we investigated whether maternal dietary fibre intake influences Treg cell phenotypes in the mediastinal lymph nodes (mLN) and lungs of PVM-infected neonatal mice. Using high dimensional flow cytometry, we identified distinct clusters of regulatory T cells (Treg cells), which differed between lungs and mLN during infection, with notably greater effector Treg cell accumulation in the lungs. Compared to high-fibre diet (HFD)-reared pups, frequencies of various effector Treg cell subsets were decreased in the lungs of LFD-reared pups. Particularly, recruitment of chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3 + ) expressing Treg cells was attenuated in LFD-reared pups, correlating with lower lung expression of CXCL9 and CXCL10 chemokines. The recruitment of this subset in response to PVM infection was similarly impaired in pDC depleted mice or following anti-CXCR3 treatment, increasing immunopathology in the lungs. In summary, PVM infection leads to the sequential recruitment and expansion of distinct Treg cell subsets to the lungs and mLN. The attenuated recruitment of the CXCR3 + subset in LFD-reared pups increases LRI severity, suggesting that strategies to enhance pDCs or CXCL9/CXCL10 expression will lower immune-mediated pathogenesis., (© 2024 The Authors. Immunology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Several prognostic factors for primary cutaneous melanoma (PCM) have been identified, and these predict metastasis and survival, to a certain extent. We sought to determine the frequency of angiotropism (AT) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in PCM and the relationship between AT, LVI, and other clinicopathological parameters and patient's prognosis., Methods: This study included 538 cases of PCM diagnosed between 2003 and 2016. It comprised 246 females and 292 males whose clinicopathological variables were evaluated with respect to LVI and AT using univariate and multivariate analyses. Overall survival (OS) was assessed by Kaplan-Meier (KM) analysis and Cox regression multivariate analysis., Results: AT occurred more frequently than LVI. Ulceration, mitotic rate, and Breslow thickness were found to be highly associated with both LVI and AT (p < 0.01). All LVI+ cases had AT, with a significant positive correlation (p < 0.01). Both AT and LVI predicted lymph node (LN) metastasis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.47, 1.12, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed LN metastasis, Breslow thickness, LVI, and AT as predictors of OS. LVI and AT independently predicted adverse OS by Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.66, 1.49, respectively) and with KM survival analysis., Conclusion: AT is a marker for angiotropic extravascular migratory tumor spread (angiotropic EVMM), and LVI is a marker for intra-lymphovascular tumor spread. Both predict poor prognosis. Given its ease of detection, AT could be adopted as a histologpathological feature in the routine assessment of primary cutaneous malignant melanoma cases., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Cutaneous Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The penile epithelial microbiome remains underexplored. We sequenced human RNA and a segment of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from the foreskin tissue of 144 adolescents from South Africa and Uganda collected during penile circumcision after receipt of 1-2 doses of placebo, emtricitabine + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, or emtricitabine + tenofovir alafenamide to investigate the microbiome of foreskin tissue and its potential changes with antiretroviral use. We identified a large number of anaerobic species, including Corynebacterium acnes, which was detected more frequently in participants from South Africa than Uganda. Bacterial populations did not differ by treatment received, and no differentially abundant taxa were identified between placebo versus active drug recipients. The relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa was negatively correlated with expression of genes downstream of the innate immune response to bacteria and regulation of inflammation. Our results show no difference in the tissue microbiome of the foreskin with short-course antiretroviral use but that bacterial taxa were largely inversely correlated with inflammatory gene expression, consistent with commensal colonization., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Background: The efficacy of on-demand HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men in sub-Saharan Africa has not been evaluated, and the on-demand PrEP dosing requirement for insertive sex remains unknown., Methods: HIV-negative males 13-24 years, requesting voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), were enrolled into an open-label randomised controlled trial (NCT03986970), and randomised 1:1:1:1:1:1:1:1:1 to control arm or one of eight arms receiving emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (F/TDF) or emtricitabine-tenofovir alafenamide (F/TAF) over one or two days, and circumcised 5 or 21 h thereafter. The primary outcome was foreskin p24 concentrations following ex vivo HIV-1 BaL challenge. Secondary outcomes included peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) p24 concentration, and drug concentrations in foreskin tissue, PBMCs, plasma and foreskin CD4+/CD4-cells. In the control arm, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) activity of non-formulated tenofovir-emtricitabine (TFV-FTC) or TAF-FTC was assessed with ex vivo dosing 1, 24, 48 or 72 h post-HIV-1 challenge., Findings: 144 participants were analysed. PrEP with F/TDF or F/TAF prevented ex vivo infection of foreskins and PBMCs both 5 and 21 h after PrEP dosing. There was no difference between F/TDF and F/TAF (p24 day15 geometric mean ratio 1.06, 95% confidence interval: 0.65-1.74). Additional ex vivo dosing did not further increase inhibition. In the control arm, PEP ex vivo dosing was effective up to 48 post-exposure diminishing thereafter, with TAF-FTC showing prolonged protection compared to TFV-FTC. Participants receiving F/TAF had higher TFV-DP concentrations in foreskin tissue and PBMCs compared with F/TDF, irrespective of dose and sampling interval; but F/TAF did not confer preferential TFV-DP distribution into foreskin HIV target cells. FTC-TP concentrations with both drug regimens were equivalent and ∼1 log higher than TFV-DP in foreskin., Interpretation: A double dose of either F/TDF or F/TAF given once either 5 or 21 h before ex vivo HIV-challenge provided protection across foreskin tissue. Further clinical evaluation of pre-coital PrEP for insertive sex is warranted., Funding: EDCTP2, Gilead Sciences, Vetenskapsrådet., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests CH has received research grants from EDCTP, Vetenskapsrådet and Gilead Sciences. LE has received research grants from EDCTP, and Gilead Sciences. LL has received research grants from EDCTP, Gilead Sciences, Roche Diagnostic, DO has received research grants from EDCTP, AS has received research grants from EDCTP, AP has received research grants from EDCTP, PN has received research grants from EDCTP, PS has received research grants from EDCTP, DS has received research grants from EDCTP, RM has received research grants from EDCTP, BA has received research grants from EDCTP, SP has received research grants from EDCTP, CC is an employee of Gilead Sciences, JS has received research grants from EDCTP, HW has received research grants from EDCTP, SK has received research funding, speaker honoraria and consulting fees from EDCTP, Gilead Sciences, ViiV, Merck, GSK, and Ridgeback. FC has received research grants from EDCTP and Vetenskapsrådet. ELW has received grants from EDCTP, MRC, and NIH. CG has received research grants from EDCTP. PK has received research grants from EDCTP. EW has received research grants from EDCTP, NIH and MRC. NM has received research grants from EDCTP, and Gilead Sciences and provided unpaid advice and leadership in the DSMB and Setshaba boards. CC is a full-time employee of Gilead Sciences. All other authors declare no competing interests aside from the research grant received for this study by EDCTP., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

There is an urgent need for better immunoassays to measure antibody responses as part of immune-surveillance activities and to profile immunological responses to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. We optimised and validated an in-house conventional ELISA to identify and quantify SARS-CoV-2 spike- (S-), receptor binding domain- (RBD-), and nucleoprotein- (N-) directed IgG, IgM, and IgA binding antibodies in the Ugandan population and similar settings. Pre- and post-pandemic specimens were used to compare the utility of mean ± 2SD, mean ± 3SD, 4-fold above blanks, bootstrapping, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in determining optimal cut-off optical densities at 450 nm (OD) for discriminating between antibody positives and negatives. "Limits of detection" (LOD) and "limits of quantitation" (LOQ) were validated alongside the assay's uniformity, accuracy, inter-assay and inter-operator precision, and parallelism. With spike-directed sensitivity and specificity of 95.33 and 94.15%, respectively, and nucleoprotein sensitivity and specificity of 82.69 and 79.71%, ROC was chosen as the best method for determining cutoffs. Accuracy measurements were within the expected CV range of 25%. Serum and plasma OD values were highly correlated (r = 0.93, p=0.0001). ROC-derived cut-offs for S-, RBD-, and N-directed IgG, IgM, and IgA were 0.432, 0.356, 0.201 (S), 0.214, 0.350, 0.303 (RBD), and 0.395, 0.229, 0.188 (N). The sensitivity and specificity of the S-IgG cut-off were equivalent to the WHO 20/B770-02 S-IgG reference standard at 100% level. Spike negative IgG, IgM, and IgA ODs corresponded to median antibody concentrations of 1.49, 3.16, and 0 BAU/mL, respectively, consistent with WHO low titre estimates. Anti-spike IgG, IgM, and IgA cut-offs were equivalent to 18.94, 20.06, and 55.08 BAU/mL. For the first time, we provide validated parameters and cut-off criteria for the in-house detection of subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine-elicited binding antibodies in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa and populations with comparable risk factors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Oluka, Namubiru, Kato, Ankunda, Gombe, Cotten, The COVID-19 Immunoprofiling Team, Musenero, Kaleebu, Fox and Serwanga.)

Whilst short-term oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with antiretroviral drugs in men who have sex with men has shown protection against HIV-1 infection, the impact of this regimen on the in vivo foreskin transcriptome is unknown. We collected foreskin tissue after voluntary medical male circumcision from 144 young men (72 from Uganda and 72 from South Africa) randomized to one to two doses of either oral tenofovir (TFV) disoproxil fumarate (FTC-TDF) or tenofovir alafenamide (FTC-TAF) or no drug (untreated controls). This novel approach allowed us to examine the impact of short-term oral PrEP on transcriptome of the male genital tract. A single dose of FTC-TDF did not affect the foreskin transcriptome in relation to control arm, however one dose of FTC-TAF induced upregulation of four genes AKAP8 , KIAA0141 , HSCB and METTL17 . Following two doses of either FTC-TDF or FTC-TAF, there was an increase in 34 differentially expressed genes for FTC-TDF and 15 for FTC-TAF, with nine DEGs in common: KIAA0141 , SAFB2 , CACTIN , FXR2 , AKAP8 , HSCB , CLNS1A , DDX27 and DCAF15 . Functional analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed modulation of biological processes related to mitochondrial stress (KIAA0141, HSCB and METTL17) , anti-viral and anti-inflammatory pathways ( CACTIN and AKAP8) . Our results show that short-course on-demand oral PrEP in men modulates genes in foreskin tissue which are likely unfavorable to HIV acquisition and replication. We also describe an upregulated expression of genes involved in diverse mitochondria biology which may potentially result in worsened mitochondria-related. These results warrant further studies to assess the role of short-course and prolonged oral PrEP on biological processes of the foreskin mucosa., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Petkov, Herrera, Else, Lebina, Opoka, Seiphetlo, Pillay, Mugaba, Namubiru, Odoch, Ssemata, Serwanga, Kaleebu, Webb, Khoo, Martinson, Gray, Fox and Chiodi.)

HIV-1 pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) relies on inhibition of HIV-1 replication steps. To understand how PrEP modulates the immunological environment, we derived the plasma proteomic profile of men receiving emtricitabine-tenofovir (FTC-TDF) or emtricitabine-tenofovir alafenamide (FTC-TAF) during the CHAPS trial in South Africa and Uganda (NCT03986970). The CHAPS trial randomized 144 participants to one control and 8 PrEP arms, differing by drug type, number of PrEP doses and timing from final PrEP dose to sampling. Blood was collected pre- and post-PrEP. The inflammatory profile of plasma samples was analyzed using Olink (N=92 proteins) and Luminex (N=33) and associated with plasma drug concentrations using mass spectrometry. The proteins whose levels changed most significantly from pre- to post-PrEP were CCL4, CCL3 and TNF-α; CCL4 was the key discriminator between pre- and post-PrEP samples. CCL4 and CCL3 levels were significantly increased in post-PrEP samples compared to control specimens. CCL4 was significantly correlated with FTC drug levels in plasma. Production of inflammatory chemokines CCL4 and CCL3 in response to short-term PrEP indicates the mobilization of ligands which potentially block virus attachment to CCR5 HIV-1 co-receptor. The significant correlation between CCL4 and FTC levels suggests that CCL4 increase is modulated as an inflammatory response to PrEP., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Petkov, Herrera, Else, Mugaba, Namubiru, Odoch, Opoka, Pillay, Seiphetlo, Serwanga, Ssemata, Kaleebu, Webb, Khoo, Lebina, Gray, Martinson, Fox and Chiodi.)