BACKGROUND Assessment of HER-2/neu status in invasive breast cancer is crucial to establish eligibility for trastuzumab and taxane based chemotherapy. Next to immunohistochemistry (IHC) to evaluate protein overexpression, a second line gene amplification test is required for cases with equivocal protein expression. This study aimed to validate a new PCR based test, called Multiplex Ligation-dep...

BACKGROUND American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) is endemic in Latin America, where Brazil has over 27 thousand cases per year. The aim of the present study was to develop an immunohistochemical method (IHC) for ATL diagnosis. For this purpose, we used serum from a dog naturally infected with Leishmania (L) infantum (canine hyperimmune serum) as the primary antibody, followed by a detection ...

Accurate tumor classification is fundamental to inform predictive biomarker testing and optimize therapy. Gene expression-based tests are proposed as diagnostic aids in cases with uncertain diagnoses. This study directly compared the diagnostic accuracy of IHC analysis versus molecular classification using a 92-gene RT-PCR assay for determination of the primary tumor site. This prospectively de...

The breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) is a recently characterized xenobiotic half-transporter protein that acts as an energy-dependent efflux pump and may be associated with the multidrug-resistant phenotype. The aim of this study was to determine the association between BCRP expression and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) resistance in clinical breast cancer tissue specimens. The BCRP expression wa...

Currently, a variety of tests are used to detect bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) in persistently infected (PI) cattle. These tests include immunohistochemical staining (IHC), antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ACE), virus isolation (VI), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). However, a lack of methods standardization could compromise the ability to con...

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. We performed shotgun liquid chromatography (LC)/tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis on pooled protein extracts from patients with PTC and compared the results with those from normal thyroid tissue validated by real-time (RT) PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). We detected 524 types of protein in PTC and 432 in norm...

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has been evaluated in breast cancer patients to identify those most likely to benefit from herceptin-targeted therapy. HER2 amplification, detected in 20-30% of invasive breast tumors, is associated with reduced survival and metastasis. The most frequently used technique for evaluating HER2 protein status as a routine procedure is immunohistochemi...

In the United States, human ehrlichiosis is a complex of emerging tick-borne diseases caused by 3 distinct Ehrlichia species: Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, and the human granulocytotropic ehrlichiosis agent. Ehrlichioses are characterized by a mild to severe illness, and approximately 4% of cases are fatal. Because these obligate intracellular bacteria are difficult to resolve with ...

PURPOSE The objective of this study is to determine the expression and localization of lymphotoxin alpha (LTA) in human retinas and the functionality of one of its polymorphisms rs2229094 (C13R) (T>C), previously associated with proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) development. MATERIALS AND METHODS Total RNA from three healthy human retinas were extracted and subjected to reverse transcript...

OBJECTIVE FHIT gene encodes human diadenosine triphosphate hydrolase involved in the regulation of cell cycle and nucleotide metabolism and is a candidate tumor suppressor gene. AIM To investigate expression of FHIT gene at the mRNA and protein levels in sporadic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). MATERIALS AND METHODS FHIT mRNA was quantified by the validated real-time PCR (QPCR) and FHIT p...