Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been identified as the major cause of chronic liver disease among patients on chronic hemodialysis (HD), despite the important reduction in risks obtained by testing candidate blood donors for anti-HCV antibodies and the use of recombinant erythropoietin to treat anemia. A cross-sectional study was performed to estimate the prevalence of HCV infection and g...

It is widely accepted that indigo dyes derived from Murex trunculus were used to produce the biblical dyes tekhelet and argaman. We describe a method of following the debromination of natural leucoindigos and their binding to wool using NMR spectroscopy. Debromination is observed prior to reaction with the wool and prior to oxidation. Binding to the wool is shown to occur prior to oxidation. NM...

Screening blood donations for human T-lymphotropic virus types I and II (HTLV-I/II) continues to be important in protecting the safety of blood products and controlling the global spread of these retroviruses. We have developed a fully automated, third generation chemiluminescent immunoassay, ARCHITECT rHTLV-I/II, for detection of antibodies to HTLV-I/II. The assay utilizes recombinant proteins...