With its high sensitivity, specificity, and convenience,

the real-time RT-LAMP is a practical molecular diagnostic method for rapid and quantitative detection of DTMUV infection in a resource-limited setting. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“Purpose: About two million new cases of leishmaniasis with 50 000 associated deaths occur worldwide each year. Promastigotes of the causative Leishmania spp. develop from the procyclic stage to the highly virulent metacyclic stage within the sand fly vector. We hypothesized AZD1208 manufacturer that proteins important for promastigote virulence might be uniquely represented in the plasma membrane of metacyclic, but not procyclic, promastigotes.

Experimental design: Procyclic (logarithmic) promastigotes and purified

metacyclic promastigotes from stationary phase cultures of Leishmania chagasi were used to prepare membrane preparations either by surface biotinylation-streptavidin affinity separation or by octyl glucoside detergent extraction.

Results: These membrane fractions were enriched over 130- and 250-fold, respectively, as estimated by Western blotting for the plasma membrane’s major surface protease. Hundreds or dozens of proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS in the surface biotinylation or detergent extraction, respectively. Confocal microscopy suggested the difference between the fists was due to the fact that proteins localized both on the surface membrane and within the flagellar pocket were FRAX597 Temsirolimus solubility dmso accessible to surface biotinylation, whereas only proteins on the membrane were obtained by detergent extraction. Using detergent extraction,

we found different proteins were present in membranes of the procyclic stage compared to metacyclic stage promastigotes. Several dozen were stage specific.

Conclusions and clinical relevance: These data provide a foundation for identifying virulence factors in the plasma membranes of Leishmania spp. promastigotes during metacyclogenesis.”
“Methamphetamine’s (METH) neurotoxicity is thought to be in part due to its ability to induce blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction. Here, we investigated the effect of METH on barrier properties of cultured rat primary brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMVECs). Transendothelial flux doubled in response to METH, irrespective of the size of tracer used. At the same time, transendothelial electrical resistance was unchanged as was the ultrastructural appearance of inter-endothelial junctions and the distribution of key junction proteins, suggesting that METH promoted vesicular but not junctional transport. Indeed, METH significantly increased uptake of horseradish peroxidase into vesicular structures. METH also enhanced transendothelial migration of lymphocytes indicating that the endothelial barrier against both molecules and cells was compromised.