PURPOSE Primary tumor growth is usually assessed by measuring tumor mass or volume, under the assumption that such variables correlate with the contents of tumor cells. However, tumors are complex interacting mixtures of tumor cells and host components. The different sensitivity of such components to cytostatic agents should be taken into consideration when evaluating the effectiveness of antin...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with high percentage of chronicity which implies the ability of the virus to evade or modulate host cell immune system. Modulation of chemokines, such as RANTES may be part of the virus induced pathogenicity. We examined the effect of core and structural proteins of HCV on RANTES expression in two liver derived cell lines, HepG2 and Cha...

Yersinia pestis and Bacillus anthracis are Category A bacterial pathogens that are the causative agents of the plague and anthrax, respectively. Although the natural occurrence of both diseases' is now relatively rare, the possibility of terrorist groups using these pathogens as a bioweapon is real. Because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid clinical course, and high mortality rat...

We show that in vitro toxicity assay based on inhibition of the bioluminescence of recombinant Escherichia coli encoding thermostable luciferase from Photorhabdus luminescens is a versatile alternative to Vibrio fischeri Microtox™ test. Performance of two luxCDABE-transformed E. coli MC1061 constructs (pDNlux) and (pSLlux) otherwise identical, but having 100-fold different background luminescen...

BACKGROUND Electrotransfer of plasmid DNA into skeletal muscle is a promising strategy for the delivery of therapeutic molecules targeting various muscular diseases, cancer and lower-limb ischemia. Internal Ribosome Entry Sites (IRESs) allow co-expression of proteins of interest from a single transcriptional unit. IRESs are RNA elements that have been found in viral RNAs as well as a variety of...

BACKGROUND The focus of nursing home infection control procedures has been on decreasing transmission between healthcare workers and residents. Less evidence is available regarding whether decontamination of high-touch environmental surfaces impacts infection rates or resident outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine if ultraviolet disinfection is associated with changes in: 1) microb...

Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi Author Jani Kiuru Name of the doctoral dissertation Interactions of Chemical Variations and Biocide Performance at Paper Machines Publisher School of Chemical Technology Unit Department of Forest Products Technology Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 148/2011 Field of research Forest Products Chemistry ...

The prohormone of atrial natriuretic peptide (proANP) is a polypeptide of 126 amino acids. Mature atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) consists of amino acids 99–126 and comprises 98% of the natriuretic peptides in the circulation (1 ). The N-terminal portion of proANP, termed proANP1–98 or NT-proANP, has a much longer half-life than mature ANP and has therefore been suggested to be a more reliable...

To maintain their productive capacity, yeasts cells need to adapt to environmental changes that occur during production process. Acid stress response is of interest, because such exposure occurs under industrial conditions, such as the acidic treatment before cell recycling in fermentation process. Resembling the response to weak organic acids, resistance to inorganic acids exposure involves ch...

The CellTiter-Glo® 3D Cell Viability Assay is designed for determining cell viability in 3D microtissue spheroids. The assay reagent penetrates large spheroids and has increased lytic capacity—allowing more accurate determination of viability compared to other assay methods. Based on the same chemistry as the classic CellTiter-Glo® Assay, this new 3D assay reagent measures ATP as an indicator o...