Non-peptidic HIV protease inhibitors: C2-symmetry-based design of bis-sulfonamide dihydropyrones

Potent, non-peptidic, dihydropyrone sulfonamide HIV protease inhibitors have been previously described. Crystallographic analysis of dihydropyrone sulfonamide inhibitor/HIV protease complexes suggested incorporation of a second, C2 symmetry-related sulfonamide group. Selected bis-sulfonamide dihydropyrone analogues display high HIV protease inhibitory activity.     

Morphologic changes in the lens epithelium in patients with age-induced cataract, radiation and steroid cataract and cataract following eye contusion

The lens epithelium of the human eye plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of primary and secondary cataract. Sixty hematoxylin-eosinstained lens epithelia were examined using a light microscope. Cell parameters were compared to one another in the various age groups of patients, between patients with secondary cataract (radiation cataract, steroid cataract and traumatic cataract) and patients with senile cataract, and between male and female patients. The t-test was used for statistical comparison. The median cell density was 3116.5 cells/mm2. The median nucleus-plasma ratio was 1:2.74. Patients with secondary cataract had a larger medium cell and nucleus area as well as a higher nucleus-plasma ratio and a lower cell density than patients with senile cataract. A part from degenerative and proliferative cell changes we found various cell types. The age of patients and the cause of cataract correlate with morphometric changes of lens epithelium cells. However, there was no correlation between specific cytologic changes and causes of cataract.     

Activation of auditory cortex during silent lipreading

Watching a speaker's lips during face-to-face conversation (lipreading) markedly improves speech perception, particularly in noisy conditions. With functional magnetic resonance imaging it was found that these linguistic visual cues are sufficient to activate auditory cortex in normal hearing individuals in the absence of auditory speech sounds. Two further experiments suggest that these auditory cortical areas are not engaged when an individual is viewing nonlinguistic facial movements but appear to be activated by silent meaningless speechlike movements (pseudospeech). This supports psycholinguistic evidence that seen speech influences the perception of heard speech at a prelexical stage.