Trypanosoma congolense causes the most economically important animal trypanosomosis in Africa. In South Africa, a rinderpest pandemic of the 1890s removed many host animals, resulting in the near-eradication of most tsetse species. Further suppression was achieved through spraying with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT); however, residual populations of Glossina austeni and G. brevipalpis re...

Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (M-PCR) was developed to determine its usefulness as a rapid and specific method for routine diagnosis of Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and Lawsonia intracellularis infections in pigs. The assay was based on simultaneous amplification of the tlyA-encoded haemolysin gene of B. hyodysenteriae and 16S rRNA sequences of L. intracellularis. The results of this study ...

BACKGROUND/AIM PARV4, a small DNA virus belonging to the family Parvoviridae, was first isolated in an HBV injecting drug user. Several studies have investigated PARV4 co-infection with HBV and HCV and its effect on the progression of liver disease. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of PARV4 among HBV-infected patients and healthy individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS A group ...

Mucins (MUCs) are high molecular weight membrane glycoproteins. The gene expression of MUCs (MUC1-MUC8) may change characteristically during malignant transformation of epithelial tissues. Total RNA was isolated from the four bladder cancer cell lines RT4, 647V, HT1376, and 486P (pathological gradings between G1 and G4) and 17 samples of transitional cell carcinomas, as well as 16 samples of no...

By establishing sensitive nested reverse transcription-PCRs for the detection of mRNA of a-fetoprotein (AFP) and b human chorionic gonadotropin (bhCG), we investigated the presence of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of 119 patients with germ-cell tumor. A total of 336 blood samples obtained before and during therapy were examined with regard to clinical applicability. The overal...

We describe an allele-specific PCR assay to detect mutations in three codons of the rpoB gene (516, 526, and 531) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains; mutations in these codons are reported to account for majority of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates resistant to rifampin (RIF), a marker of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Three different allele-specific PCRs are carried out either ...

Fig. S1. (a, b) Agarose gel analysis and (c, d) direct sequencing of mRNA amplified by nested PCRs in the proband and her mother. The mutation c.488delG in exon 5 of LAMA3 has been amplified using a forward primer located in exon 1 (bp 175) and a reverse primer located in exon 8 (bp 815). The mutation c.4484C>T in exon 33 of LAMA3 has been amplified using a forward primer located in exon 31 (bp...

BACKGROUND Cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains an important pathogen to immunocompromised patients even in the era of HAART. The present study aimed at evaluating the influence of CMV viral load and its gB genotypes on AIDS patients' outcome. METHODS Blood samples of 101 AIDS patients were collected and tested for HIV load, CD4 - cell count and opportunistic pathogens, including CMV. Semi-nested PC...

We used a nested PCR with Borrelia flagellin gene (flaB) primers and DNA sequencing to determine if Borrelia lonestari was present in Amblyomma americanum ticks removed from military personnel and sent to the Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. In our preliminary investigation, we detected Borrelia sequences in 19 of 510 A. america...

Several methods have been described for gene walking by PCR on uncloned DNA (2 — 13). In general, they suffer from limitations: they either avoid high-complexity whole genomes, require delicate manipulation or give contaminated products. This report describes a reliable and simple PCR (1) adaptation for gene walks from any specific genomic locus: unpredictably primed PCR (UP-PCR). Besides its s...