AIMS Liver-enriched microRNA-122 (miR-122) is a novel circulating biomarker for drug-induced liver injury (DILI). To date, miR-122 has been measured in serum or plasma venous samples. If miR-122 could be measured in capillary blood obtained from a finger prick it would facilitate point-of-care testing, such as in resource-limited settings that have a high burden of DILI. METHODS In this study...

Among women attending a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in Nairobi with vaginal discharge, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis were isolated from the cervix in 32 (26%) of 122 and four (7%) of 58 women respectively. Infection with Trichomonas vaginalis, Candida albicans, Gardnerella vaginalis, and Mycoplasma spp were diagnosed in 42 of 122 (34%), 26 of 110 (24%), 75 of 100...

MicroRNA 122 (miR-122) is highly expressed in the liver where it influences diverse biological processes and pathways, including hepatitis C virus replication and metabolism of iron and cholesterol. It is processed from a long non-coding primary transcript (~7.5 kb) and the gene has two evolutionarily-conserved regions containing the pri-mir-122 promoter and pre-mir-122 hairpin region. Several ...

Hepatic miR-122 can serve as a pro-apoptotic factor to suppress tumorigenesis. The underlying mechanism, however, remains incompletely understood. Here we present the first evidence that miR-122 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cell apoptosis through directly silencing the biogenesis of cell survival oncomiR miR-21 at posttranscriptional level. We find that miR-122 is strongly expressed in pri...

The aim of this work was to evaluate the immunogenicity and neutralizing activity of sheep pox virus (SPPV; genus Capripoxvirus, family Poxviridae) structural proteins as candidate subunit vaccines to control sheep pox disease. SPPV structural proteins were identified by sequence homology with proteins of vaccinia virus (VACV) strain Copenhagen. Four SPPV proteins (SPPV-ORF 060, SPPV-ORF 095, S...

BACKGROUND Circulating microRNA-122 (miR-122) has been increasingly reported to be a potential biomarker for drug-, viral-, alcohol- and chemical-induced liver injury. The present study was initiated to determine the potential of circulating miR-122 as a biomarker for cholestatic liver injury. METHODS Both bile-duct ligation (BDL) mice and patients with biliary calculi were employed as choles...

Constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) is a nuclear receptor that regulates the transcription of target genes, including CYP2B and 3A. Phenobarbital activates CAR, at least in part, in an AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-dependent manner. However, the precise mechanisms underlying phenobarbital activation of AMPK are still unclear. In the present study, it was demonstrated that phenobarbital...

We have designed ruthenium-modified Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurins that incorporate 3-nitrotyrosine (NO2YOH) between Ru(2,2'-bipyridine)2(imidazole)(histidine) and Cu redox centers in electron transfer (ET) pathways. We investigated the structures and reactivities of three different systems: RuH107NO2YOH109, RuH124NO2YOH122, and RuH126NO2YOH122. RuH107NO2YOH109, unlabeled H124NO2YOH122, and unl...

BACKGROUND Invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection is increasingly recognised as an important cause of serious sepsis across the developing world, with mortality rates higher than those in the developed world. The factors determining mortality in developing countries have not been identified. METHODS A prospective, observational study of invasive S. aureus disease was conducted at a provinci...

AIM Molecular characterization of the CD133+ stem cells associated with hepatocarinogensis through identifying the expression patterns of specific microRNAs (miRNAs). METHODS We investigated the expression pattern of 13 miRNAs in purified CD133+ cells separated from the peripheral blood of healthy volunteers, chronic hepatitis C (CHC), liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) p...