BACKGROUND Despite the enormous global burden of tuberculosis (TB), conventional approaches to diagnosis continue to rely on tests that have major drawbacks. The improvement of TB diagnostics relies, not only on good biomarkers, but also upon accurate detection methodologies. The 10-kDa culture filtrate protein (CFP-10) and the 6-kDa early secreted antigen target (ESAT-6) are potent T-cell anti...

PURPOSE To characterize cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) expression in the retina of the thy1-CFP (B6.Cg-Tg(Thy1-CFP)23Jrs/J) transgenic mouse line. METHODS CFP expression was characterized using morphometric methods and immunohistochemistry with antibodies to neurofilament light (NF-L), neuronal nuclei (NeuN), POU-domain protein (Brn3a) and calretinin, which immunolabel ganglion cells, and syn...

Converting secondary natural forests (SFs) to Chinese fir plantations (CFPs) represents one of the most important (8.9 million ha) land use changes in subtropical China. This study estimated both biomass and soil C stocks in a SF and a CFP that was converted from a SF, to quantify the effects of land use change on ecosystem C stock. After the forest conversion, biomass C in the CFP (73 Mg ̈ha ́1)...

Recently, we described that ATP induces changes in YFP/CFP fluorescence intensities of Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) sensors based on CFP-YFP. To get insight into this phenomenon, we employed fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy to analyze the influence of ATP on these fluorescent proteins in more detail. Using different donor and acceptor pairs we found that ATP only affected the...

Differential delayed-type hypersensitivity skin testing with tuberculin purified protein derivatives from Mycobacterium bovis and M. avium is the standard for diagnosing bovine tuberculosis. However, improved tests based on defined, specific antigens are urgently needed. In the present study, a combination of bioinformatics, molecular biology, and bovine models of infection were used to screen ...

BACKGROUND Recent interest has focused on the potential use of serial interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) release assay (IGRA) measurements to assess the response to anti-tuberculous (TB) treatment. The kinetics of IFN-gamma responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) antigens in HIV-infected children during treatment have not however been previously investigated. METHODS IFN-gamma responses to th...

The Counterflow Pipeline (CFP) organization may be a good target for synthesis of application-specific microprocessors for embedded systems because it has a regular and simple structure. This paper describes a design environment for tailoring CFP's to an embedded application to improve performance. Our system allows exploring the design space of all possible CFP's for a given embedded applicati...

The Cercospora kikuchii cercosporin export gene, CFP, introduced into Beta vulgaris L. by conjugation with Rhizobium radiobacter, was stably maintained during vegetative propagation as verified by PCR using primers specific for the CFP gene. Transcriptional expression of the CFP gene in leaves was determined by RT-PCR using CFP-specific primers. CFP protein was detected using Western analysis w...

Objective: To compare the efficacy of the conventional skin test and a novel flow cytometric whole blood assay in the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in patients with rheumatologic diseases evaluated for treatment with tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α-blocking agents. Methods: Prospective study of 97 consecutively enrolled patients, who were assessed for the presence of LTBI thr...