Faculty Bibliography

More than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS since the epidemic was recognized in 1981, and the number is expected to rise to 13 million by the end of 2000, the United Nations said today in a report to mark World AIDS Day. The number of AIDS orphans is believed to far outstrip the number of children orphaned by other causes. The soaring number of AIDS deaths could eventually undermine the stability of affected countries, Dr. Peter Piot, the head of the United Nations program on AIDS, said in an interview here. All but 5 percent of the world's children orphaned by AIDS live in countries below the Sahara, Unaids and Unicef said in the report. In the past, age-old networks of immediate and extended families would have assumed care of orphans. But, the report said, ''the traditional African extended family is breaking down under the unprecedented burden of the pandemic.''

Is AIDS an epidemic inadvertently brought on by human testing of a polio vaccine in Africa in the 1950s? In 'The River,' Edward Hooper suggests that an experimental polio vaccine might have been made with chimpanzee tissue that had been tainted with an ancestor of the AIDS virus. He finds coincidences in the time and place between the earliest AIDS cases and the testing of a vaccine developed at Philadelphia's Wistar Institute and, later, in two Belgium labs. From 1957 to 1960, the vaccine was given to a million people in what are now Rwanda, Burundi and Congo

More than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS since the epidemic was recognized in 1981, and the number is expected to rise to 13 million by the end of 2000, the United Nations said yesterday in a report to mark World AIDS Day. Under the UN definition, 11 per cent of all children in Uganda and 9 per cent in Zambia were orphans in 1997, the latest date for which data are available. In many other African countries like Zimbabwe the number was 7 per cent. The UN report did not provide a comparison with countries in other areas. Before AIDS, about 2 per cent of all children in developing countries were orphans. No figure exists for orphans in African countries before AIDS, UN officials said. AIDS orphans are at higher risk for malnutrition and its effects, illness, abuse and sexual exploitation than children orphaned by other causes, the report said. Also, AIDS orphans face the stigma and discrimination that often shadow the disease, leaving them socially isolated and often deprived of education and other basic social services

More than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS since the epidemic was recognized in 1981, and the number is expected to rise to 13 million by the end of 2000, the United Nations said Wednesday in a report to mark World AIDS Day. The soaring number of AIDS deaths could eventually undermine the political stability of affected countries, said Dr. Peter Piot, head of the U.N. program on AIDS. All but 5 percent of the world's children orphaned by AIDS live in countries below the Sahara, UNAIDS and UNICEF said in the report. In the past, age-old networks of immediate and extended families would have assumed the care of orphans. But, the report said, 'the traditional African extended family is breaking down under the unprecedented burden of the pandemic.'

Is AIDS a disaster inadvertently brought on by early testing of a polio vaccine in Africa in the 1950s? In 'The River' (Little, Brown, $35), Edward Hooper suggests that an experimental oral polio vaccine might have been made with chimpanzee tissue contaminated with an ancestor of the virus that was to cause AIDS. Although he has no medical expertise, Hooper, 48, has done a prodigious amount of research since 1990. In 1,070 pages, including extensive footnotes, he builds a case based on circumstantial evidence that he accumulated in hundreds of interviews and exhaustive library research. He finds close coincidence in both time and place between the earliest cases of AIDS and the testing of an oral vaccine developed at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and, later, in two laboratories in Belgium. From 1957 to 1960, the vaccine was given to a million people in what are now Rwanda, Burundi and Congo

More than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS since the epidemicwas recognized in 1981, and the number is expected to rise to 13 million bythe end of 2000, the United Nations said yesterday in a report to mark WorldAIDS Day. The soaring number of AIDS deaths could eventually undermine the politicalstability of affected countries, said Dr. Peter Piot, the head of the U.N.program on AIDS. All but 5 percent of the world's children orphaned by AIDS live insub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS and UNICEF said in the report. In the past, age-oldnetworks of immediate and extended families would have assumed the care oforphans. But, the report said, 'the traditional African extended family isbreaking down under the unprecedented burden of the pandemic.'

Is AIDS a disaster inadvertently brought on by humans in the early testing of a polio vaccine in Africa in the 1950s? This provocative theory seemed far-fetched when it first came to public attention in an article in Rolling Stone in 1992. Most AIDS experts dismissed it after a scientific committee reviewed the theory and deemed the probability very low. In 'The River,' Edward Hooper suggests that an experimental oral polio vaccine might have been made with chimpanzee tissue contaminated with an ancestor of the virus that was to cause AIDS

Is AIDS a disaster inadvertently brought on by humans that arose from early testing of a polio vaccine in Africa in the 1950s? This provocative theory seemed far-fetched when it first came to public attention in an article in Rolling Stone in 1992. Most AIDS experts dismissed it after a scientific committee reviewed the theory and deemed the probability very low. In 'The River,' Edward Hooper suggests that an experimental oral polio vaccine might have been made with chimpanzee tissue contaminated with an ancestor of the virus that was to cause AIDS. Although he has no medical expertise, Hooper, 48, has done a prodigious amount of research since 1990. In 1,070 pages, including extensive footnotes, he builds a case based entirely on circumstantial evidence that he accumulated in hundreds of interviews and exhaustive library research

15-Deoxy-Delta12,14-PGJ2 (dPGJ2) is a bioactive metabolite of the J2 series that has been identified as a ligand for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) and has received attention for its potential antiinflammatory effects. Because neutrophils express cell-surface receptors for PGs, the effect of dPGJ2 was tested on an inflammatory response that should not require PPARgamma, the oxidative burst made by adherent human neutrophils. dPGJ2 inhibited adhesion-dependent H2O2 production with an IC50 of 1. 5 microM when neutrophils were stimulated with TNF, N-formylnorleucylleucylphenylalanine, or LPS. Inhibition by dPGJ2 occurred during the lag phase, before generation of peroxide, suggesting blockade of an early signaling step. Indeed, dPGJ2 blocked adhesion of neutrophils to fibrinogen in response to TNF or LPS with an IC50 of 3-5 micro+dPGJ2 was more potent at inhibiting the adhesion-dependent oxidative burst than several other PGs tested. Further, dPGJ2 did not appear to act through either the DP receptor or receptors for PGE2. PG receptors modulate cAMP levels, and the inhibition of adhesion and oxidative burst by dPGJ2 was enhanced in the presence of 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine, a cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor. A potent PPARgamma agonist (AD-5075) did not inhibit peroxide production or adhesion, nor did it change the IC50 for dPGJ2 inhibition. These studies suggest that dPGJ2 may interact with an unknown receptor on neutrophils, distinct from PPARgamma, to modulate the production of reactive oxygen intermediates.