Browsing by Subject "AIDS"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The medication experience of people living with HIV: From the understanding of the meanings of medication to the development of a conceptual framework of medication experience.
    (2012-06) Alves, Mateus Rodrigues
    This is a study investigating the medication experience of people living with HIV/AIDS and the influences on the patient's relationship with medications. The study was conducted from April 2011 to April 2012. The methodology of investigation was Grounded Theory. The methods included one-to-one in-depth interviews, journaling, and observations. The participants in the study were nine people living with HIV. The results suggest that there are two dimensions of experiences associated with HIV drug therapy. One is the life disruption and the other is the meaning that the patient ascribes to medications. The results of this study are presented as a theoretical visual model. The model intends to show the complexities of living with HIV and the factors influencing the patient's relationship with medications in HIV drug therapy. The author recommends the use of narratives in patient care as a standard practice to understand the patient's medication experience. In addition, the proposed model can be used as a pedagogical tool to teach students in the health care disciplines as it portrays the complexities involved in HIV medication taking in a relatively simple manner. The findings of this study contribute to the illness experience as well as medication experience literature. Lastly, the proposed model can be applied to other illness contexts in which the use of medications is a key strategy for improving the patient's quality of life.
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    The role of HIV- and SIV-specific CD8+ T cells in the establishment of persistent HIV and SIV infections.
    (2009-12) Mattila, Teresa Lea
    CD8+ T cells are important in controlling viral infections. Although the appearance of HIV-specific CD8+T cells initially correlates with reduced viral load during HIV infection, for unknown reasons HIV is never fully cleared from the body. My central hypothesis is that B cell follicles are sites in which virus-producing cells are protected from virus-specific CD8+T cells. During the chronic stages of infection the majority of HIV-producing cells accumulate in B cell follicles. The localization and abundance of HIV-specific CD8+T cells relative to B cell follicles is not known. For these studies I determined the spatial localization of HIV and SIV-specific CD8+T cells relative to B cell follicles in lymph nodes from HIV-infected humans and SIV-infected rhesus macaques, using immunohistochemistry, in situ tetramer staining, confocal microscopy, and quantitative image analysis. My findings show that most HIV-specific CD8+T cells were concentrated in T cell zones and were largely excluded from areas within B cell follicles where HIV is concentrated. Because many similarities exist between HIV infection in humans and SIV infection in macaques, and SIV model systems are essential tools to understanding HIV/SIV infections and for the development of HIV vaccines, we set out to determine whether the exclusion of virus-specific CD8+T cells from B cell follicles also occurs in the SIV/rhesus macaque model of HIV infection. I found in a small cohort of animals that during the early and late stages of SIV infection, SIV-specific CD8+ T cells were concentrated in T cell zones of lymph nodes, and that within B cell follicles, concentrations of SIV-specific CD8+T cells were significantly lower than in T cell zones. Most B cell follicles showed an absolute exclusion of SIV-specific T cells from more than half of the B cell follicle area where SIV concentrates. These data support the hypothesis that B cell follicles are an immune privileged site in which HIV/SIV-producing cells are protected from HIV/SIV-specific CD8+T cells. These data have important implications for the development of a successful HIV vaccine and treatments to eradicate HIV.
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    Studies On The Antiretroviral Mechanism Of Action Of Clofarabine
    (2014-07) Beach, Lauren
    Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic over thirty years ago, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has infected seventy-five million people and has claimed the lives of over thirty-six million people worldwide, making HIV/AIDS one of the most devastating global infectious disease epidemics in history. To date, no preventative vaccine or curative treatment exists for HIV-1 infection. The availability of drugs to treat HIV-1 infection has led to drug resistance, which limits the utility of antiviral therapy. This has provided the basis for the continual need for identifying new targets for antiviral drugs. This dissertation investigated the antiretroviral activity and mechanism of action for clofarabine, a purine nucleoside antimetabolite. Clofarabine was demonstrated to exert antiretroviral activity against both HIV-1 and human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2). Studies directed at elucidating the antiretroviral mechanism of action support a model in which clofarabine acts as an inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, leading to imbalances in cellular dNTP pools, which reduces viral infectivity through an increase in the HIV-1 mutation rate.
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    The Youth and AIDS Projects Style Guide
    (The Youth and AIDS Projects, 2020-05) Department of Writing Studies; Students enrolled in WRIT 3671; Youth and AIDS Projects
    Students in WRIT 3671: "Visual Rhetoric and Document Design" partnered with The Youth and AIDS Projects, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, to create a style guide for the organization.