The assessment of physiochemical and pharmacological properties at early stages of drug discovery can accelerate the conversion of hits and leads into candidates for further development. A strategy for streamlined evaluation of compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the early preclinical stage is presented in this report. As a primary assay to rapidly select experimental compounds with...

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), the main polyphenol component of green tea, has several antibacterial properties. Here we show that sub-MICs of EGCg appear to decrease slime production, therefore inhibiting biofilm formation by ocular staphylococcal isolates previously characterized for the presence of ica genes by the Congo red agar plate assay and for adhesion to microtiter plates.

wound infections are a common cause of staphylococcal infections. an ability of s.aureus is to adhere and form biofilm on host surfaces. biofilm is an exopolysaccharide, a slime matrix around multiple layers of cells and is mediated by expression of the icaadbc operon. the present study evaluated the biofilm forming capacity and the presence of icaad gene among s.aureus isolated from wound infe...

We report the identification of Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum from whole blood in a renal transplant patient with disseminated histoplasmosis using colorimetric microtiter-plate PCR. This modality demonstrated utility in reaching a definitive diagnosis in a timely manner. Blood fungal cultures in this case remained negative, suggesting that molecular assays may facilitate the laborator...

The object of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the Neogen Corp. microtiter plate enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISA) for the screening of postmortem blood for amphetamine and methamphetamine and to choose the more appropriate assay for screening. Forty-seven postmortem whole blood specimens were obtained from drug-involved deaths, which had been screened and confirmed positive for m...

A microtiter plate assay for UDP-galactopyranose mutase, an essential cell wall biosynthetic enzyme of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was developed. The assay is based on the release of tritiated formaldehyde from UDP-galactofuranose but not UDP-galactopyranose by periodate and was used to identify a uridine-based enzyme inhibitor from a chemical library.

A rapid in-house mycobacteriophage-based assay to identify multidrug resistance by detecting the rifampin susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a microtiter plate format was evaluated. The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of the assay were 100%. This test is rapid to perform and suitable for widespread implementation.