Interaction of the sialic acid-specific lectin carcinoscorpin with various sialoglycoproteins was studied by using radioiodinated lectin. The binding of carcinoscorpin was dependent not only on sialic acid content but also on the type of glycosidic linkage and form (branched or linear) of the carbohydrate chains. Carcinoscorpin has different classes of binding sites, and binding follows a pheno...

Endotoxins, also referred to as pyrogens, are part of the cellular walls of Gram-negative bacteria and are capable of inducing fever when entering into the blood stream. Current methods of detection involve the use of either amoebocytes from horseshoe crab that clots upon exposure to endotoxin or a live assay on rabbits. In this work, the detection of endotoxins by an electrochemical competitiv...

A review of recently published work is presented on the nature of the agglutination of human peripheral lymphocytes and cultured lymphoblastoid cells by the hemolymph agglutinins of two arachnoids, the Horsefoot (Limulus polyphemus), alias Horseshoe Crab, and the Saharan Scorpion (Androctonus australis). Microagglutination techniques were utilized to study the specificity of the whole serum and...

Phosphagen kinases catalyze the reversible transfer of a phosphoryl group between guanidino phosphate compounds and ADP, thereby regenerating ATP during bursts of cellular activity. Large quantities of highly pure arginine kinase (EC 2.7.3.3), the phosphagen kinase present in arthropods, have been isolated from E. coli, into which the cDNA for the horseshoe crab enzyme had been cloned. Purifica...

A pro-clotting enzyme capable of causing the gelation of clottable proteins in Limulw polgphemus (horseshoe crab) has been purified to apparent homogeneity as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis. The activation of the pro-clotting enzyme depended on the presence of both Ca’+ and endotoxin. It contained y-carboxyglutamic acids and gave a single NlI,-terminal lysine. The enzyme w...

PyroSmart NextGen® is a recombinant cascade reagent (rCR) for the detection and quantification of bacterial endotoxins developed using cloned genes derived from Limulus polyphemus horseshoe crab genome. Requirements use this alternative include analysis analytical performance, method suitability, test result equivalency to amoebocyte lysate (LAL) reagents used in compendial Bacterial Endotoxins...