Browsing by Author "Parboosing, Raveen."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Clinical and epidemiological aspects of HIV and Hepatitis C virus co-infection in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
(2008) Parboosing, Raveen.; Lalloo, Umesh Gangaram.
HIV is known to affect the epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis and natural history of HCV infection whilst studies on the effects of HCV on HIV have shown conflicting results and are confounded by the influence of intravenous drug use and anti-retroviral therapy. This study was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa where HIV is predominantly a sexually transmitted infection. Intravenous drug use is rare in this region and the study population was naive to anti-retroviral therapy. For this study, specimens from selected sentinel sites submitted to a central laboratory for routine HIV testing were screened for anti-HCV IgG antibodies. HIV positive HCV-positive patients were compared to HIV-positive HCV-negative patients in a subgroup of patients within this cohort in order to determine if HCV sero-prevalence was associated with clinical outcomes in a linked anonymous retrospective chart survey. The prevalence of HCV was 6.4% and that of HIV, 40.2%. There was a significantly higher prevalence of HCV among HIV infected patients as compared to HIV negative patients (13.4% vs. 1.73% respectively). HCV-HIV co-infected patients had significantly increased mortality (8.3 vs. 21%). A significant association was found between HCV serostatus and abnormal urea and creatinine levels. Hepatitis B surface antigen seropo-sitivity was not found to be a confounding factor. This study has found that hepatitis C co-infection is more common in HIV positive individuals and is associated with an increased mortality and renal morbidity.
Cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects of Moringa Oleifera Lam.on hela cells.
(2021) Govender, Krishnambal.; Parboosing, Raveen.; Moodley, Indres.
Moringa oleifera Lam., known to most as the ‘drumstick tree’, is a non-fastidious botanical that is native to India, and is cultivated on a global scale as a sustainable crop, for sustenance, medicinal and beauty applications, amongst others. The antitumour, antibacterial and antifungal effects of M. oleifera are well-documented, however, its specific effects on human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced malignancy have not been established. High-risk HPV subtypes 16 and 18 are implicated in the carcinogenesis of more than 90% of cervical cancers. Despite well-established national cervical screening programmes, cervical cancer still remains the most common cancer affecting females in South Africa. This may partly be attributed to the high incidence of HIV infection in South Africa. Some of the hallmarks of cancer are, the up-regulation of telomerase, over-expression of E2F1 transcription factor, and over-expression of cyclin E and cyclin B1. The aim of this current study was to establish whether 24-hour treatment with hexane and ethanol leaf extracts of M. oleifera modulate telomerase, E2F1, cyclin E, and cyclin B1. The apoptotic pathway and phase of cell cycle arrest were also investigated. The HeLa cell line, an aggressive cervical cancer cell line in which high-risk HPV-18 viral strands have been identified, was used in this study A novel effect of M. oleifera leaf extract was evident in the inactivation of telomerase. The inactivation of telomerase implies that p53 function was restored by the repression of E6 gene expression. Another novel outcome of the study is that M. oleifera down-regulates E2F1, accounting for the dose-dependent antiproliferative effects seen. The inactivation of telomerase was demonstrated by caspase-3 and caspase-7 activation, which confirmed intrinsic apoptosis. The down-regulation of E2F1 possibly occurs through the repression of the E6 oncoprotein and the activation of p53. The quantitative assessment of cyclin E and cyclin B1, showed an overall down-regulation, and G2-M cell cycle arrest. Taken together, this study provides convincing evidence that M. oleifera hexane and ethanol leaf fractions have potential antitumour effects, by targeting multiple abnormally elevated markers for down-regulation. Other M. oleifera fractions investigated in a parallel study, and were excluded due to p values being greater than 0.05 and inconclusive findings, in dichloromethane and aqueous fractions.
The development, optimisation and comparison of various virological assays and their uses in antiviral assessment of compounds wih potential anti-HIV activity.
(2009) Singh, Varish.; Parboosing, Raveen.
The development and optimization of anti-viral screening methods are essential to develop newer more effective, treatments against HIV. The XTT method is a widely described method for antiviral screening. Both continuous HIVinfected cells and experimentally infected T-cells have been used in the XTT assay. We compared these methods to screen several plant-derived extracts for cytotoxicity. Several considerations were taken into account when performing these tests (effect of media, solvents and plant enymes). Experiments were performed to investigate these effects. In addition, p24 and viral load quantification were compared as antiviral screening methods. The study showed that several modifications were necessary when performing the XTT assay on plant extracts, due to the effect of media, solvents and plant enymes. The XTT assays and p24 assays performed using experimentally infected cells are far more specific than those using chronically infected cells. The use of viral loads as an antiviral screening method consistently demonstrated the expected efficacy of AZT.
The epidemiology of dual HIV infection in the KwaZulu-Natal Anti-Retroviral Roll-out Programme.
(2007) Naidoo, Anneta Frances.; Parboosing, Raveen.
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest prevalence of HIV in South Africa. The prevalence of dual infection in a normal-risk population in this region is unknown. Dual HIV infection has important implications for diagnosis, treatment response and vaccine development. This cross-sectional study aimed to establish and optimize methods for subtyping and detection of dual infection in KZN. Samples were from chronically-infected patients on ARV treatment within the ARV Rollout Programme, from sites throughout KZN. Subtyping of the samples was performed using HMA. Four samples had indeterminate results by HMA and were then cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed that one of the four samples was a dual infection. This study showed 1/46(2%) samples to be dually infected which suggests that the prevalence of dual infection is low in the sample population. The low prevalence of dual infection reported could be due to the low-risk profile of the sample population. It was concluded that the low prevalence of dual infection is unlikely to have a considerable impact on HIV management.