The effectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the standard of care for the treatment of HIV-1 infection, is assessed by measuring the viral RNA load in plasma. A patient is considered to be successfully treated when the HIV-1 load in plasma stays below the detection limit of commercial assays. However, virus replication and evolution do continue in patients under HAART, whi...

PURPOSE Reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) have been described to identify lymph node micrometastases. These assays are not quantitative and can be confounded by false-positive results. The purpose of this study was to determine whether quantification of CEA in lymph nodes could more readily identify clinically relevant groups. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Spe...

Detection of African horsesickness virus (AHSV) by three different reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based methods were compared. Primers were complementary to sequences contained in the gene encoding non-structural protein 2 of AHSV serotype 3. All three assays were group-specific for AHSV and detected all nine serotypes but not related orbiviruses. A dilution range was ...

Background: Bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) is the primary cause of enzootic bovine leukaemia which belongs to the HTLV/BLV group of oncogenic retroviruses including Human T-cell leukaemia virus types 1, 2, and 3 and simian T-lymphotropic virus. Due to daily consumption of milk, meat and other dairy by-products, a possible role in appearing human cancers can be assumed for BLV. Materials and Metho...

In this study, we describe the detection of novel paramyxoviruses from the Eidolon helvum species of fruit bats. We extracted RNA from 312 spleen samples from bats captured in Zambia over a period of 4 years (2008-2011). Semi-nested RT-PCR detected a total of 25 (8%) positive samples for paramyxoviruses which were then directly sequenced and analyzed using phylogenetic analysis. Among the posit...

Accurate staging is an important issue in managing patients with prostate cancer. Current staging modalities are poor predictors for locally advanced disease. In the present study, we investigated the role of a peripheral blood-based, nested reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) in prostate cancer staging. Our nested ...

For detecting Borna disease virus (BDV) genomic stranded RNA, single-tube reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (St RT-PCR) was developed to equal the sensitivity of RT-nested PCR but with reduced risk of contamination. BDV-genomic stranded RNA was synthesized in vitro using plasmid cDNA of BDV p24 region as a template and RNA was also extracted from BDV-persistently infected MDCK (MD...

background and purpose: fungal keratitis is a suppurative, ulcerative, and sight-threatening infection of the cornea that sometimes leads to blindness. the aims of this study were: recuperating facilities for laboratory diagnosis, determining the causative microorganisms, and comparing conventional laboratory diagnostic tools and semi-nested pcr. materials and methods: sampling was conducted in...