Faculty Bibliography

The findings by researchers working independently at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City and the Free University of Brussels provide a genetic explanation for a phenomenon that has long perplexed epidemiologists: Some people do not get infected despite having sex with partners who die from AIDS. The mutant gene controls production of a protein that is needed to allow the entry into cells of HIV-1, the most common form of the AIDS virus. The gene is called CKR-5, and the protein it makes is on the surface of certain immune cells. People who inherit two copies of the mutant CKR-5 gene, one from each parent, cannot make the protein. So if a sex partner transmits HIV to them, the virus cannot dock with a molecule on the surface of the CD-4 immune cells. Thus, HIV-1 remains harmless in those people

Since Trans World Airlines Flight 800 exploded on Jul 17, 1996, a team of leading medical examiners has worked long hours not only to identify the bodies of victims pulled from the ocean but also to help determine the cause of the crash. In doing so, the medical examiners have conducted a wide array of tests seeking traces of explosive among the 195 bodies that were recovered. After three weeks, and with many tests still to be completed, the team has found no evidence of an explosive device

Federal health officials Tuesday approved the first urine test to detect HIV, the AIDS virus, but said it was not as accurate as the standard blood test. Those who test positive for HIV with the urine test are advised to get a second urine test, and if that is also positive, they then need a blood test for confirmation. The FDA has advised doctors who use the test to counsel those who use the urine test and explain that a negative test is not a guarantee of being free of infection

FDA official on Aug 6, 1996 approved the first urine test to detect HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but said it was not as accurate as the standard blood test. The urine test was approved as a supplemental diagnostic test, not as a substitute for the standard blood test

This study was designed to elucidate the effect of the synthetic androgen, methyltestosterone, on bile flow and biliary lipid secretion in female hamsters. Animals were divided into four groups and fed the following diets: group 1, lithogenic diet for three weeks; group 2, lithogenic diet + 0.05% methyltestosterone for three weeks; group 3, lithogenic diet for six weeks; group 4, lithogenic diet + 0.05% methyltestosterone for six weeks. At the end of each experimental period, the hamsters were operated on to establish external biliary fistulas. During the depletion of the endogenous bile acid pool (for two hours), the basal bile flow of group 4 was significantly smaller than that of group 3. Basal bile acid output was significantly lower in the methyltestosterone-fed groups 2 and 4 than in control groups 1 and 3. In contrast, groups 2 and 4 secreted more cholesterol than groups 1 and 3. Group 4 had a higher ratio of cholesterol output to phospholipid output than group 3. Increasing doses of taurocholate were infused after the bile acid depletion period, and it was found that methyltestosterone did not change the bile acid independent bile flow. The increments in cholesterol or phospholipid output induced per increment of bile acid output (linkage coefficients) were analyzed by linear regression. The methyltestosterone-fed groups (groups 2 and 4) had a higher linkage coefficient of cholesterol output to bile acid output than the control groups (groups 1 and 3). The linkage coefficients of phospholipid output to bile acid output of groups 2 and 4 were also higher compared to groups 1 and 3. The linkage coefficient of cholesterol output to phospholipid output of group 2 was higher than that of group 1. These results suggest that methyltestosterone stimulated the cosecretion mechanism of cholesterol and phospholipid in bile associated with an increasing ratio of cholesterol to phospholipid. In conclusion, the synthetic androgen, methyltestosterone, caused a decrease in basal bile flow and bile acid secretion, and an increase in basal cholesterol secretion and the biliary cholesterol-to-phospholipid ratio. These findings explain, in part, how methyltestosterone intensifies the formation of cholesterol gallstones in female hamsters.

Automated sequence analysis of a 410-bp region of the axyR gene in 105 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates identified a polymorphic nucleotide that differentiated Mycobacterium bovis isolates from other complex members. All 29 M. bovis isolates sequenced had an adenine residue at nucleotide 285, whereas all 76 other complex isolates had a guanine residue. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of oxyR with restriction endonuclease AluI in an additional 255 complex isolates from widespread intercontinental sources confirmed and extended the unique association of adenine at position 285 with M. bovis isolates

Bob Dole, who turns 73 on Jul 22, 1996, said on Jul 21 that if he was elected president, he would submit to an independent medical review of his health in the event that questions arose about his mental or physical ability to serve

WASHINGTON - Bob Dole, the likely Republican presidential nominee who celebrates his 73rd birthday on Monday, is in excellent health, Dole and two of his doctors said Saturday. He attributes his good health to the care he takes in keeping at a trim 178 pounds - he is 6 feet tall - and to running at least 30 minutes on a treadmill three or four times a week for a total of 14 miles. He said he ''loves ice cream, but I don't eat a lot of it.'' Dole also suggested that his energy and stamina ''must be due to good genes somewhere along the line.'' He also credited quitting smoking more than 30 years ago for helping preserve his health. Dole quit shortly after Surgeon General Luther Terry issued his pioneering report warning about the dangers of smoking in 1964. ''That's when I got the message,'' said Dole, adding that quitting ''was not easy.''

Bob Dole, the likely Repubilcan presidential nominee, is in excellent health, Dole and two of his doctors said the week of Jul 14, 1996 in extensive interviews about his health. Dole's health takes on particular significance because if he was elected president, he would be the oldest man to assume that office. Details concerning Dole's health status are discussed