With the availability of more potent nucleotide/nucleoside analogues, the early detection of drug-resistant mutants of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is important for the strategic treatment of chronic hepatitis B. We studied 336 serum samples from 80 patients chronically infected with HBV who were receiving lamivudine treatment for the presence of lamivudine resistance mutations at codons 80, 173, 18...

Expression of the Streptomyces exfoliatus lipA gene, which encodes an extracellular lipase, depends on LipR, a transcriptional activator that belongs to the STAND class of P-loop nucleoside triphosphatases. LipR is closely related to activators present in some antibiotic biosynthesis clusters of actinomycetes, forming the LipR/TchG family of regulators. In this work we showed that purified LipR...

Infections with multidrug-resistant (resistant at least to rifampicin, RIF and isoniazid, INH) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are associated with high case fatality rates. Rapid identification' of MDR-TB strains is important for early institution of appropriate therapy. Two DNA line probe assays, GenoType MTBDR (GT-MTBDR) and INNO-LiPA Rif. TB (INNO-LiPA) were compared for their...

Increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been associated with the APOA5, APOC1, BRAP, BUD13, CETP, LIPA, LPL, PLCG1, and ZPR1 genes. In this replication study, we reassessed whether these genes are associated with MetS and its individual components independently and/or through complex interactions in a Taiwanese population. We also analyzed the interactions between environment...

BACKGROUND At least six HCV (hepatitis C virus) genotypes are unequally distributed worldwide. HCV genotyping guides the selection of treatment regimens and provides important epidemiological markers that enable the outbreak source to be traced and the spread of disease to be controlled. In Egypt, there is an increasing need for cost-effective, fast, and easily performable HCV genotyping assays...

Recently, a gene from Campylobacter jejuni encoding a putative GTPase was identified. Based on two semiconserved GTP-binding sites encoded within this gene, PCR primers were selected that allow amplification of a 153-bp fragment from C. jejuni, C. coli, C. lari, and C. upsaliensis. Sequence analysis of these PCR products revealed consistent interspecies variation, which allowed the definition o...

The goal of this study was to identify genes in Bacillus cereus, a bacterium commonly associated with plant seeds and roots, that are affected by compounds originating from a host plant, tomato, or another rhizosphere resident, Pseudomonas aureofaciens. We constructed a B. cereus chromosomal DNA library in a promoter-trap plasmid, pAD123, which contains a promoterless version of the green fluor...

To evaluate the capacity of Versant HCV genotype assay (LiPA) 2.0 to identify hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes, 110 serum samples were collected from chronic hepatitis C patients. Three methods were compared: core sequence analysis, NS5B sequence analysis and the INNO-LiPA assay. The result showed that 102 (92.7%) of the samples were amplified in either or both regions, of which 97 were amplif...

More than 50% of sepsis cases are associated with pneumonia. Sepsis is caused by infiltration of bacteria into the blood via inflammation, which is triggered by the release of cell wall components following lysis. However, the regulatory mechanism of lysis during infection is not well defined. Mice were infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 wild-type (WT) and lipase mutant (ΔlipA) intranas...