Fe(3)O(4) particles are currently used as the core of immunomagnetic microspheres in the immunomagnetic enrichment assay of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). It is difficult to further improve the sensitivity of CTC detection or to improve tumor cell-type identification and characterization. In the present study, we prepared immunomagnetic nanoparticles with nanopure iron as the core, coated with...

Nested reverse transcription (RT)-PCR for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) can detect circulat ing prostatic cells in patients with prostate cancer. We evaluated the role of a combined screening approach for PSA and PSM in prostate cancer staging. We examined the peripheral blood samples from 136 patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate (PCA), 15 ...

BACKGROUND The prognostic significance of molecular staging using thyroglobulin (Tg)-based RT-PCR analysis in the peripheral blood of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) was investigated. Herein, the specificity of molecular staging in DTC patients after thyroidectomy and 131I ablation therapy was analysed, using different specific cDNA primers in qualitative nested and classical ...

Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assays have been widely described for use in the diagnosis of human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) and other respiratory virus pathogens. However, these assays are mostly monospecific, requiring separate amplifications for each HPIV type. In the present work, we describe multiplex RT-PCR assays that detect and differentiate HPIV serotypes 1, 2, and 3 in a combined ...

Aim: The objective of this study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and S7 gene characterization of bluetongue virus (BTV) of sheep in the West of Iran, during 2007-2008. Materials and Methods: A total 372 sheep blood samples were collected from known seropositive regions in the West of Iran. Anti-BTV antibodies were detected in the serum samples by group specific, C-ELISA. Extractio...

BACKGROUND Due to an increasing number of norovirus infections in the last years rapid, specific, and sensitive diagnostic tools are needed. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) have become the methods of choice. To minimize the working time and the risk of carryover contamination during the multi-step procedure of PCR the multiplex real-time RT-PCR for the simultaneous det...

INTRODUCTION Yellow fever is considered a re-emerging disease and is endemic in tropical regions of Africa and South America. At present, there are no standardized or commercialized kits available for yellow fever virus detection. Therefore, diagnosis must be made by time-consuming routine techniques, and sometimes, the virus or its proteins are not detected. Furthermore, co-circulation with ot...

Dengue virus (DNV) is the cause of dengue infections and Pakistan along with the world is now being overloaded with their patients. The molecular epidemiological studies reveal that there are four serotypes of the DNV circulating throughout the endemic countries. Non-structural glycoprotein (NS-1) causes the damage of hepatocytes along with the activation of the complement system which in turn ...

Specific and sensitive reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assays were developed for the detection of eastern, western, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses (EEE, WEE, and VEE, respectively). Tests for specificity included all known alphavirus species. The EEE-specific RT-PCR amplified a 464-bp region of the E2 gene exclusively from 10 different EEE strains from South and North America wit...