Wild bird carcasses were collected through passive monitoring of wild bird mortality. In necropsy, brain samples were taken from dead wild birds in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Samples were used for detection of West Nile virus by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). No WNV nucleic acid was detected by RT-PCR. In the light of the data presented there is no evidence of wild bird mor...

The effect of RNA degradation on the diagnostic utility of microRNA has not been systematically evaluated in clinical samples. We asked if the microRNA profile is preserved in degraded RNA samples derived from mouse and human tissue. We selected tissue-specific microRNA candidates from published human microarray data, and validated them using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain ...

BACKGROUND DNA microarray technology has permitted the analysis of global gene expression profiles for several diseases, including cancer. However, standard hybridisation and detection protocols require micrograms of mRNA for microarray analysis, limiting broader application of this technology to small excisional biopsies, needle biopsies, and/or microdissected tissue samples. Therefore, linear...

Assessment of cytokine expression during an immune response is a critical requirement for studies of basic immune mechanisms and the pathogenesis of disease. As an alternative to measuring cytokine protein levels, analysis of cytokine mRNA may be appropriate, because production of many cytokines is primarily transcriptionally regulated. Therefore, the level of cytokine mRNA present in a sample ...

We show that RNA can serve as a primer in PCR. Use of rTth DNA polymerase is essential because it has strong reverse transcriptase activity. RNA primers can be obtained by in vitro transcription and are less costly than DNA primers, which are chemically synthesized. RNA-primed PCR also opens the possibility that a specific amplification reaction can be achieved in the absence of knowledge of th...

Background and Aims: The aim of this study was cloning and expression of rabies virus glycoprotein by a eukaryotic expression plasmid pcDNA3.1(+) in BSR cell line. This construct might be used for a potential DNA vaccine. Materials and Methods: Glycoprotein gene was synthesized and cloned into pBluescript vector and then sub cloned into eukaryotic expression vector (pcDNA3.1(+)). After verifica...