Anti-CD14 Monoclonal antibody, clone Tb3-9 [Biotin]

Background Early detection of viremia in HIV infected patients on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is important to prevent disease progression as well as accumulation of drug resistance mutations. This makes HIV viral load (VL) monitoring indispensable in HIV infected patients on ART. However VL, being an expensive test, results in heavy financial burden on health services. Hence, cheaper surrogate markers of viremia are desired to reduce overall cost of management of HIV infected patients. Methods We enrolled aviremic (n = 63, M:F = 31:32) and viremic (n = 43, M:F = 21:22) HIV infected patients at 1 year after ART initiation. Viremic individuals were identified as those having a plasma VL of more than 1000 copies/mu l and aviremic individuals as less than 40 copies/mu l. The study participants also included immuno-virologically discordant patients as they demonstrate differential degrees of immune-reconstitution and are likely to harbour concomitant infections influencing levels of immune-activation markers screened as the surrogate markers. Immune activation markers viz. plasma hs-CRP, soluble-CD14 and Galectin-9 levels were estimated by ELISA, IL-6 by luminex assay and percentages of CD38+ CD8+ cells were determined by flow cytometry. The levels were compared between viremic and aviremic patients and correlated with plasma viral load. Receiver operated curve (ROC) analysis was done for plasma Galectin-9 levels. Results Viremic patients had significantly higher levels of Galectin-9 and %CD38+ CD8+ cells (p values < 0.0001) than aviremic patients. Levels of the other activation markers did not differ between viremic and aviremic individuals. Galectin-9 levels (r = 0.76) and %CD38+ CD8+ cells (r = 0.39) correlated positively with VL. Area under curve for Galectin-9 levels for distinguishing between viremic and aviremic individuals was 0.98. Youden index, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for Galectin-9 levels were 0.87, 0.97, 0.90, 0.87 and 0.98, respectively, at the cut-off value of 5.79 ng/ml. Conclusions Plasma Galectin-9 levels could identify viremic individuals with sensitivity and specificity of more than 90%. Thus, they showed a potential to serve as a surrogate marker of viremia in HIV infected patients on ART and would have cost implications on HIV management especially in resource-limited settings. However, the findings need to be confirmed in the patients on ART for different durations of time.

Background Exercise is recognized to evoke multisystemic adaptations that, particularly in obese subjects, reduce body weight, improve glucometabolic control, counteract sarcopenia, and lower the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of exercise-induced benefits is of great interest due to the therapeutic implications against obesity. Objectives and methods The aim of the present study was to evaluate time-related changes in size distribution and cell origin of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in obese and normal-weight subjects who underwent a moderate-intensity exercise on a treadmill (at 60% of their VO2max). Blood samples were drawn before, immediately at the end of the exercise and during the postexercise recovery period (3 and 24 h). Circulating EVs were analyzed by a nanoparticle tracking analysis and flow cytometry after labeling with the following cell-specific markers: CD14 (monocyte/macrophage), CD61 (platelet), CD62E (activated endothelium), CD105 (total endothelium), SCGA (skeletal muscle), and FABP (adipose tissue). Results In all subjects, acute exercise reduced the release of total (i.e., 30-700 nm) EVs in circulation, predominantly EVs in the microvesicle size range (i.e., 130-700 nm EVs). The postexercise release of microvesicles was higher in normal-weight than obese subjects; after exercise, circulating levels of exosomes (i.e., 30-130 nm EVs) and microvesicles were, respectively, lower and higher in females than males. In all experimental subgroups (males vs. females and obese vs. normal-weight subjects), acute exercise reduced and increased, respectively, CD61 + and SCGA + EVs, being the effect on CD61 + EVs prolonged up to 24 h after the end of the test with subjects in resting conditions. Total EVs, exosomes, and CD61 + EVs were associated with HOMA-IR. Conclusions Though preliminary, the results of the present study show that a single bout of acute exercise modulates the release of EVs in circulation, which are tissue-, sex-, and BMI specific, suggesting that the exercise-related benefits might depend upon a complex interaction of tissue, endocrine, and metabolic factors.