OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among patients with new smear-positive pulmonary TB in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. METHODS Sputum samples were cultured from 1 006 patients newly diagnosed with TB in 2008. The core region of the rpoB gene that is associated with resistance to rifampin was sequenced. All isolates with rpoB mutations were sent to the...

A real-time assay system that allows monitoring of intracellular human enterovirus (HEV) protease activity was established using the principle of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). It was accomplished by engineering cells to constitutively express a genetically encoded FRET probe. The FRET-based probe was designed to contain an enterovirus 71 3C protease (3C(pro)) cleavage motif fla...

BACKGROUND With the development of new specific inhibitors of hepatitis C virus (HCV) enzymes and functions that may yield different antiviral responses and resistance profiles according to the HCV subtype, correct HCV genotype 1 subtype identification is mandatory in clinical trials for stratification and interpretation purposes and will likely become necessary in future clinical practice. The...

BACKGROUND Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a major public health problem especially in developing countries. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends use of Xpert MTB/RIF assay to simultaneously detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and rifampicin (RIF) resistance. The primary objective of this study was to determine the frequency of MDR-TB in patients suspected to have dru...

A new DNA probe assay (INNO LiPA Mycobacteria; Innogenetics, Ghent, Belgium) for the simultaneous identification, by means of reverse hybridization and line-probe technology, of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, Mycobacterium kansasii, Mycobacterium xenopi, Mycobacterium gordonae, the species of the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), Mycobacterium scrofulaceum, and Mycobacterium chelonae was ...

Avian influenza H9N2 subtype viruses have had a great impact on Iranian industrial poultry production economy since introduction in the country. To approach Rapid and precise identification of this viruses as control measures in poultry industry, a real time probe base assay was developed to directly detect a specific influenza virus of H9N2 subtype -instead of general detection of Influenza A ...

Global hypomethylation in white blood cell (WBC) DNA has recently been proposed as a potential biomarker for determining cancer risk through genomic instability. However, the amplitude of the changes associated with age and the impacts of environmental factors on DNA methylation are unclear. In this study, we investigated the association of genomic hypomethylation with age, cigarette use, drink...

A new commercially available DNA strip assay (GenoType Mycobacterium CM/AS; Hain Lifescience, Nehren, Germany) was evaluated for the ability to differentiate mycobacterial species. The test is based on a PCR technique targeting a 23S rRNA gene region, followed by reverse hybridization and line probe technology. The GenoType CM is capable of identifying 23, the GenoType AS a further 14, species ...

BACKGROUND The incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is increasing and the emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a major challenge. Controlling resistance, reducing transmission and improving treatment outcomes in MDR/XDR-TB patients is reliant on susceptibility testing. Susceptibility testing using phenotypic methods is labour intensive and time-cons...