Homologous recombination is an important mechanism for the repair of damaged chromosomes, for preventing the demise of damaged replication forks, and for several other aspects of chromosome metabolism and maintenance. The homologous recombination reaction is mediated by the Rad51 recombinase. In the presence of ATP, Rad51 polymerizes on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) to form a nucleoprotein filame...

BACKGROUND Colony formation assay is the gold standard to determine cell reproductive death after treatment with ionizing radiation, applied for different cell lines or in combination with other treatment modalities. Associated linear-quadratic cell survival curves can be calculated with different methods. For easy code exchange and methodological standardisation among collaborating laboratorie...

Nine hundred and forty-eight serum samples from 83 children living in Belem, Brazil, collected within their first three years of life, were tested for the presence of group-specific rotavirus-antibody by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) blocking-test. Passively transferred maternal antibody lasted about two and half months; subsequently, low levels of rotavirus antibody started to a...

Protein X of Streptococcus agalactiae is a surface protein frequently associated with strains isolated from cases of mastitis of dairy cows. By immunizing cows with purified protein X, we obtained an antibody response which was restricted to X-bearing strains of S. agalactiae in a whole-cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. This response resulted in an increase in the opsonic activity of seru...

Background Long-term persistence of immune response and safety of two doses of an A/California/07/2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine adjuvanted with AS03 (an α-tocopherol oil-in-water emulsion-based Adjuvant System) administered 21 d apart was evaluated in Japanese adults [NCT00989612]. Methods One-hundred healthy subjects aged 20-64 y (stratified [1:1] into two age strata 20-40 y and 41-...

Dibromohemibastadin-1 (DBHB) is an already known potent inhibitor of blue mussel phenoloxidase (which is a key enzyme involved in bioadhesion). Within this study, the potentiality of DBHB against microfouling has been investigated. The activity of DBHB was evaluated on key strains of bacteria and microalgae involved in marine biofilm formation and bioassays assessing impact on growth, adhesion ...

Several models of pancreatic adenocarcinoma are now available for experimental evaluation of newer chemotherapeutic agents. The present study represents an attempt to develop a rapid in vitro screening technique that would allow prediction of cytotoxic activity (or lack thereof) as reliably as the clonogenic or colony formation assay. To this end, seven drugs (cisplatin, dactinomycin, doxorubic...

Introduction: CSCs have been identified in prostate cancer (PCa), one of the most diagnosed malignancies in men over the world, for which radiation resistance is a major problem in the treatment of advanced stages. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have the ability to self-renew and differentiate to give rise to heterogeneous phenotype of the tumor cells. It is believed that CSCs are ...

Two methods were developed for the assay of substances stimulatory to the nodulation of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) roots growing from segments of hypocotyl tissue. Coconut water was the chief source of active material, but extracts of cotyledons, hypocotyls and leaves of beans and of horse chestnut fruits were also stimulatory. High concentrations of nitrate improved nodulation both in the prese...

We describe the protocol for an inexpensive and nondestructive optical reflectance assay for the measurement of biofilm formation. Reflectance data are obtained using an Ocean Optics (Dunedin, Florida) USB 2000 spectrometer with a polychromatic light source. A fiber optic cable is used both for illumination and collection, and Ocean Optics OOIBase32 Platinum software is used for preliminary pro...