The Cepheid Xpert MRSA/SA nasal PCR assay was compared to culture for quantifying Staphylococcus aureus load from 104 nasal samples (r = 0.91, P < 0.0001). Using a bacterial load-based algorithm, the test was found able to predict the carrier state in 32 of 35 healthy volunteers (22 persistent and 13 nonpersistent carriers).

The immune performance, SNPs and expression levels of candidate genes (IL1-β, Nramp1, TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB and NLRC5) were analyzed in carrier chickens of a Chinese indigenous breed infected with Salmonella enterica Serovar Pullorum at different persistence periods (12, 19 and 24 weeks of age). Carrier birds at 19 weeks of age presented significant difference in most immune parameters, as compare...

Apolipoprotein-ε4 (APOE-ε4) is a major genetic risk factor for cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and early mortality. An accelerated rate of biological aging could contribute to this increased risk. Here, we determined whether APOE-ε4 status impacts leukocyte telomere length (TL) and the rate of cellular senescence in healthy mid-life women and, further, whether hormone replacement th...

background: available drugs are not able to eradicate intracellular viral dna in patients with hepatitis b virus (hbv) infections. hbsag vaccine could induce immunity and subsequently eradicate hepatitis b virus in proportions of these patients. our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of hbsag as a mode of therapy in inactive carriers. materials and methods: forty two consecutive patients of inact...

background: it is estimated that about 370 million people are chronic carriers of hbv worldwide. apparently 3% of iranian populations are chronic carriers of this virus. we aimed to evaluate the viral dna in biological fluids of chronic hepatitis patients compared to a control group. methods: the current case-control study was designed to evaluate the viral dna in biological fluids of 70 chroni...

The central problem in cancer chemotherapy is the severe toxic side effects of anticancer drugs on healthy tissues. Invariably the side effects impose dose reduction, treatment delay, or discontinuance of therapy. To limit the adverse side effects of cancer chemotherapy on healthy organs, we proposed a drug delivery system (DDS) with specific targeting ligands for cancer cells. The proposed DDS...

OBJECTIVE To delineate whether cortical plasticity induced by continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) differed according to catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphism in healthy older adults. METHODS Eighteen healthy older volunteers (mean age 73.78±5.04; 12 females and 6 males) were recruited. Volunteers randomly assigned in either a sham-first or real cTBS first group participa...

Type 1 citrullinemia (CTLN1) is an autosomal recessive inherited metabolic disorder caused by anargininosuccinicnate synthetase deficiency. The patient was a 38-year-old Korean woman who is a carrier for CTLN1 and her first baby was diagnosed with CTLN1. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for CTLN1 in day 3 embryos using polymerase chain reaction was performed for live birth of healthy bab...

We made a Human Genome Epidemiology review and meta-analysis to examine a possible association between interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RN) polymorphisms and susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Studies of IL-1RN polymorphisms and susceptibility to AS were found by searching the Pubmed, Cochrane library, Embase, Web of Science, Springerlink, CNKI, and CBM databases. Data were ex...