We have shown that the fluorescent dye Nile red can be used for the staining of protein bands in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels (3). Unlike the current methods using Coomassie blue or silver (5,7,9,10), Nile red staining does not require the fixation of protein in the gel. This allows the direct electroblotting and further sequencing and immunodetection of protein bands (1). N...

West Nile virus was first detected in North America in 1999 and has subsequently spread throughout the United States and Canada and into Mexico and the Caribbean. This review describes the epidemiology and ecology of West Nile virus in North America and the prospects for effective treatments and vaccines.

We conducted a complete genome analysis of a West Nile virus detected in Culex pipiens mosquitoes during a severe outbreak of human West Nile disease in Greece 2010. The virus showed closest genetic relationship to the lineage 2 strain that emerged in Hungary in 2004; increased virulence may be associated with amino acid substitution H249P.

West Nile virus belongs to the Flaviviridae family, transmitted by vector mosquitoes. Here, we reported the complete genome sequence of West Nile virus isolated from human samples during an acute encephalitis outbreak in Kerala, India. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the virus genome clusters into genetic lineage 1, clade 1a.

Complexes of the tetrachoroplatinum(II) dianion with positively charged nuclear dyes were prepared in an effort to produce agents which gain ready access into the nucleus and become very cytotoxic at clinically relevant hyperthermia temperatures. Pt(Nile blue)2 and Pt(neutral red)2 are complexes of tetrachloroplatinum(II) with two closely related p-quinonediamine dyes. Pt(Nile blue)2 and Pt(neu...

In 2005, 880 West Nile virus cases were reported in California; 305 case-patients exhibited neuroinvasive disease, including meningitis, encephalitis, or acute flaccid paralysis. Risk factors independently associated with developing neuroinvasive disease rather than West Nile fever included older age, male sex, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus.

In 2010, lineage 1 West Nile virus was detected in South Africa in the brain of a pregnant mare that succumbed to neurologic disease and in her aborted fetus, suggesting an association with abortion in horses. All West Nile virus strains previously detected in horses and humans in South Africa were lineage 2.

West Nile virus RNA was detected in brain tissue from a horse that died in June 2003 in Nuevo Leon State, Mexico. Nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the premembrane and envelope genes showed that the virus was most closely related to West Nile virus isolates collected in Texas in 2002.

To determine the lineage of West Nile virus that caused outbreaks in Italy in 2008 and 2009, several West Nile virus strains were isolated from human specimens and sequenced. On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, the strains isolated constitute a distinct group within the western Mediterranean cluster.

The emergence of West Nile virus lineage 2 in central Macedonia, Greece, in 2010 resulted in large outbreaks for 5 consecutive years. We report a case of viral meningitis in an individual infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1, which preceded the recognition of the outbreak and was confirmed retrospectively as West Nile virus neuroinvasive disease.