Cloning and expression of apolipophorin-III from the common cutworm, Spodoptera litura

Infections of the eye and genital tract with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis are a major cause of morbidity worldwide and are costly to treat. Development of a vaccine capable of protecting against infection or severe disease presents special challenges but would be the most effective long-term option for control of chlamydial disease. Progress has been made in understanding protective and pathological immune mechanisms in these infections, and a number of potential vaccine candidates have been developed.     

Organ injury scaling: spleen and liver (1994 revision)

A case of haemangiopericytoma of the greater omentum is reported here. We discuss the presentation, treatment and prognosis of these rare tumours.     

In vitro biotinylation provides quantitative recovery of highly purified active lactose permease in a single step

Consler et al. [Consler, T. G., Persson, B. L., et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 6934-6938] described a one-step purification of lactose permease, a hydrophobic membrane transport protein, from Escherichia coli. Permease constructs containing a biotin acceptor domain are biotinylated in vivo, followed by solubilization and avidin affinity purification. Although a high degree of purity is obtained, only about 15-20% of the permease is recovered due to incomplete biotinylation. In this communication, a simple modification is described that allows quantitative recovery of highly purified permease. Membranes containing permease with the biotin acceptor domain from the Klebsiella pneumoniae oxaloacetate decarboxylase are extracted with 5 M urea or treated with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide to inactivate F1/Fo ATPase and biotinylated in vitro with biotin ligase, ATP and d-biotin. Subsequently, the membranes are harvested, washed to remove free biotin and solubilized with 2% n-dodecyl-beta-D-maltopyranoside. Biotinylated permease is then purified in one step by affinity chromatography on monomeric avidin-Sepharose. The purified material is homogeneous and exhibits full activity with respect to ligand binding and counterflow.     

Isolation and sequence of the gene encoding ornithine decarboxylase, SPE1, from Candida albicans by complementation of a spe1 delta strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The gene encoding ornithine decarboxylase, SPE1, from the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans has been isolated by complementation of an ornithine decarboxylase-negative (spe1 delta) strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Four transformants, three of which contain plasmids with the SPE1 gene, were isolated by selection on polyamine-free medium. The C. albicans ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) showed high homology with other eukaryotic ODCs at both the amino acid and nucleic acid levels.     

How receptors talk to trimeric G proteins

Stimulated by hormones and sensory stimuli, serpentine receptors promote the release of GDP that is bound to the alpha subunit of trimeric G proteins and its replacement by GTP. Recent investigations have begun to define the sizes, shapes, and relative orientations of receptors and G proteins, the surfaces through which they interact with one another, and conformational changes in both sets of molecules that underlie receptor-catalyzed guanine-nucleotide exchange.     

Moral assessment of growth hormone therapy for children with idiopathic short stature

Subjects ranging in age from 50 to 89 years old, either with or without dementia were studied by both ELISA for anti-human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) gag 100-130 antibody and by cranial CT in order to clarify the relationship between HTLV-I infection and dementia. The frequency of anti-HTLV-I antibody was found to be significantly higher in the patients with dementia (24/130, 18.5%) than in those without dementia (11/139, 7.9%) (P=0.0169). Among the various types of dementia, HTLV-I seropositivity was found to be significantly associated with vascular dementia (11/48, 23%) (P=0.0087), but not with Alzheimer type dementia. In addition, HTLV-I seropositivity was also associated with Babinski sign, and the severity of cerebral infarction, ventricular dilatation and periventricular lucency on CT. The presence of HTLV-I therefore appears to be one of the risk factors for vascular dementia in HTLV-I endemic areas.     

Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea: epidemiology, risk factors, and infection control

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of specific infection control measures on the incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) and to identify risk factors for its development. SETTING: 370-bed, tertiary-care teaching hospital with approximately 12,000 to 15,000 admissions per year. METHODS: Several infection control measures were implemented in 1991 and 1992, and the attack rates of CDAD were calculated quarterly. Antibiotic use for 1988 through 1993 was analyzed. A case-control study was conducted from January 1992 to December 1992 to identify risk factors for acquisition of CDAD. RESULTS: From 1989 to 1992, the attack rate of CDAD increased from 0.49% to 2.25%. An increase in antibiotic use preceded the rise in the incidence of CDAD in 1991. Despite implementation of various infection control measures, the attack rate decreased to 1.32% in 1993, but did not return to baseline. Ninety-two cases and 78 controls (patients with diarrhea but with negative toxin assay) were studied. By univariate analysis, history of prior respiratory tract infections (odds ratio [OR], 3.6; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 1.2-10.4), the number of antibiotics, and the duration of exposure to second-generation cephalosporins (OR, 3.55; CI95, 1.47-9.41) and to ciprofloxacin (OR, 7.27; CI95, 1.13-166.0) were related significantly to the development of CDAD. By stepwise logistic regression analysis, only exposure to antibiotics and prior respiratory tract infections (P = .0001 and .0203, respectively) were found to be significant. CONCLUSION: Antibiotic pressure might have contributed to failure of infection control measures to reduce the incidence of CDAD to baseline.