Topical recombinant alpha-2 interferon treatment of recurrent genital herpes was studied in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial. Three hundred and eighty-seven patients were ...treated at eight study centers with either interferon gel or placebo four times daily for four days. Interferon therapy caused a 26% decrease in the duration of viral shedding. For male patients, there were also significant decreases in the time to crusting (17%) and duration of pain (34%) and itching (21%). For patients with recurrent genital herpes, treatment with topical interferon was found to be effective in decreasing the duration of viral shedding and, for males, pain, itching and time to crusting.
A phase I/II dose-ranging open-label 28-day monotherapy study of the safety, pharmacokinetics, and antiviral activity of nelfinavir mesylate (Viracept), an inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus ...(HIV)-l protease, was done in 65 HIV-1-infected subjects. After 28 days, 54 responding subjects entered an open-label extension that allowed for the addition of nucleoside inhibitors of reverse transcriptase and dose escalation to maintain durability. The drug was well-tolerated and demonstrated robust antiviral activity, with demonstrable superiority of the 750 mg and 1000 mg three times daily regimens. Thirty subjects who continued to receive therapy at 12 months attained a persistent 1.6 logto reduction in HIV RNA, accompanied by a mean increase in CD4 cells of 180-200/mm³. Studies of viral genotype and phenotype after virus rebound revealed that the initial active site mutation allowing for nelfinavir resistance is mediated by a unique amino acid substitution in the HIV-1 protease D30N, which does not confer in vitro phenotypic cross-resistance to the currently available protease inhibitors.
We examined chlL (frxC) gene evolution using several approaches. Sequences from the chloroplast genome of the fern Polystichum acrostichoides and from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. 7002 were ...determined and found to be highly conserved. A complete physical map of the fern chloroplast genome and partial maps of other vascular plant taxa show that chlL is located primarily in the small single copy region as in Marchantia polymorpha. A survey of a wide variety of non-angiospermous vascular plant DNAs shows that chlL is widely distributed but has been lost in the pteridophyte Psilotum and (presumably independently) within the Gnetalean gymnosperms.
The efficacy of desciclovir, an analog of acyclovir, in eliminating lesions of oral hairy leukoplakia (HL) and suppressing Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection was evaluated in a double-blind, ...placebo-controlled study of 14 patients. Patients were randomized to receive either the active drug, 250 mg three times a day for 14 days, or placebo. In all eight patients receiving desciclovir, lesions of HL were either completely resolved or significantly reduced during the treatment period, whereas lesions in patients receiving placebo showed no change. The histological features of HL were significantly diminished in patients on desciclovir, and cytochemical, in situ hybridization, and ultrastructural studies showed that EBV infection was eliminated or dramatically reduced in the desciclovir group only. Four patients on desciclovir reported side effects, but none required withdrawal from the study. The reappearance of HL in all eight subjects on desciclovir within 1-4 months after therapy was discontinued suggests the need for additional study.
SEABIRDS MARK J. RAUZON; SHEILA CONANT
Encyclopedia of Islands,
07/2009, Volume:
2
Book Chapter
From the nearshore waters to the open ocean, seabirds are the most conspicuous component of marine systems. Soaring on brisk winds, floating buoyantly amidst cresting waves or flying underwater, this ...varied group of birds has adapted to the demanding life at sea, utilizing the marine environment to feed and returning to land, primarily islands, to breed.
There are approximately 350 species of seabirds in seven orders. Here, we highlight four orders most characteristic of insular systems: Sphenisciformes (penguins), comprising 16–18 species; Procellariiformes (albatross, shearwaters Fig. 1, petrels, and storm petrels), with over 100 species; Pelicaniformes (pelicans, cormorants, boobies Fig.
This study examines the impact of decisions by the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) on policy processes in the European Union (EU). Research on national institutional responses to ...European legal obligations concentrates on France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Case studies on market liberalization and national discrimination trace the policy consequences of ECJ case law on efforts to introduce competition in the telecommunications and electricity sectors and on efforts to eliminate national discrimination among EU migrants in their access to social benefits and employment in the public sector. In the European Union, a judicially inspired rule of law is universally respected, widely obeyed, and largely contained. Institutional incentives simultaneously compel compliance with individual judgments by the European Court of Justice and narrowly confine the policy impact of those decisions. Political responses to rulings, rather than the innovative consent of jurisprudence, determine the extent to which judicial interpretations redirect policy outcomes. Reactions from formal institutions at the national and European level, firms, organizations, and individuals operate to expand or restrict the application of judicial decisions. Effective interest organization, or formal institutional support, is a critical component of efforts to compel governments to align policy with legal requirements articulated in ECJ case law. Collective organization is a function of the distribution and magnitude of interests: intense and concentrated interests facilitate concerted action in legal and political arenas. Interests that are intense but distributed inspire only independent legal action, and diffuse interests of any distribution fail to inspire mobilization. Formal institutional support consists of incidents in which either domestic or European institutions commit to the realization of European rights and obligations, devoting resources to prosecution, legal representation, and negotiation. Variable political and institutional responses to European jurisprudence generate policy processes that contain, reverse, or apply ECJ case law. The application of European judicial interpretation relies on the cooperation of administrators, legislators, and national judges. Open to challenge at many points, the realization of Europe's rule of law is a contested process that defies control by either supranational or national institutions.
The charts of all patients receiving radical surgery and radiation therapy for cancer localized to the prostate in the years 1950 to 1977 in the State of Connecticut were reviewed. Long-term survival ...rates at ten and fifteen years were considerably better in those patients treated with radical surgery.
A new dosage regimen of orally administered acyclovir, 800 mg twice daily for five days, for the treatment of recurrent genital herpes was compared with the standard dosage of 200 mg given five times ...per day. A double-blind study of 157 patients was used to evaluate the safety and efficacy of both regimens. The new regimen was well tolerated, more convenient, and as effective as the standard dosage. In male patients, the new regimen may be more effective than the standard regimen of 200 mg given five times per day to treat lesions that are already present.
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