A system of immunoenzyme analysis using biotinylated monoclonal antibodies for typing hantavirus antigens

Enzyme immunoassay with biotin-labeled monoclonal antibodies to Puumala virus was used for typing hantavirus antigens. The system is type-specific, that is, it detects Puumala virus only, which was demonstrated by typing 9 hantavirus antigens in infected Vero E5 cells and by epizootological analysis of an HFRS outbreak in the Yegoryevsk district of the Moscow region in November-December 1995. The suggested system may be used as an element of EIA screening of natural samples in analysis of the screening results.     

Prevention of acute adenolymphangitis in brugian filariasis: comparison of the efficacy of ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine, each combined with local treatment of the affected limb

Staphylococcal enterotoxins A and C1 (SEA or SEC1) bound to major histocompatibility-I (MHCI) molecules with high affinity (binding constants ranging from 1.1 microM to 79 nM). SEA and SEC1 directly bound MHCI molecules that had been captured by monoclonal antibodies specific for H-2Kk, H-2Dk, or both. In addition, MHCI-specific antibodies inhibited the binding of SEC1 to LM929 cells and SEA competitively inhibited SEC1 binding; indicating that the superantigens bound to MHCI on the cell surface. The affinity and number of superantigen binding sites differed depending on whether MHCI was expressed in the membrane of LM929 cells or whether it was captured. These data support the hypothesis that MHCI molecules can serve as superantigen receptors.     

Germ cell cancer and disorders of spermatogenesis: an environmental connection?

Why is there a small peak of germ cell tumours in the postnatal period and a major peak in young age, starting at puberty? And, paradoxically, small risk in old age, although spermatogenesis is a lifelong process? Why is this type of cancer more common in individuals with maldeveloped gonads, including undescended testis, gonadal dysgenesis and androgen insensitivity syndrome? Why has there, during the past 50 years, been a quite dramatic increase in testicular cancer in many developed countries? These are just a few of many questions concerning testicular cancer. However, the recent progress in research in the early stages of testicular cancer (carcinoma in situ testis (CIS)) allows us to begin to answer some of these questions. There is more and more evidence that the CIS cell is a gonocyte with stem cell potential, which explains why an adult man can develop a non-seminoma, which is a neoplastic caricature of embryonic growth. We consider the possibility that CIS cells may loose their stem cell potential with ageing. Along these lines, a seminoma is regarded a gonocytoma where the single gonocytes have little or no stem cell potential. The Sertoli and Leydig cells, which are activated postnatally and during and after puberty, may play a crucial role for both the development of the CIS gonocyte and progression of the neoplasm to invasiveness. The reported increase in testicular cancer is not the only sign that male reproductive health is at risk. There are reports that undescended testis and hypospadias have become more common. Also semen quality has deteriorated, at least in some countries. The epidemiological evidence suggests that environmental factors may play a role. Are the environmental hormone disrupters (e.g. DDT, PCB, nonylphenol, bisphenol A) to be blamed for the apparently synchronised deterioration in these aspects of male reproductive health?     

Malaria surveillance -- United States, 1994

PROBLEM/CONDITION: Malaria is caused by infection with one of four species of Plasmodium (i.e., P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae ), which are transmitted by the bite of an infective female Anopheles sp. mosquito. Most malarial infections in the United States occur in persons who have traveled to areas (i.e., other countries) in which disease transmission is ongoing. However, cases are transmitted occasionally through exposure to infected blood products, by congenital transmission, or by local mosquitoborne transmission. Malaria surveillance is conducted to identify episodes of local transmission and to adapt prevention recommendations. REPORTING PERIOD COVERED: Cases with onset of symptoms during 1994. DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM: Malaria cases confirmed by blood smear are reported to local and/or state health departments by health-care providers and/or laboratories. Case investigations are conducted by local and/or state health departments, and the reports are transmitted to CDC through the National Malaria Surveillance System (NMSS), which was the source of data for this report. Numbers of cases reported through NMSS may differ from those reported through other passive surveillance systems because of differences in the collection and transmission of data. RESULTS: CDC received reports of 1,014 cases of malaria with onset of symptoms during 1994 among persons in the United States or one of its territories. This number represented a 20% decrease from the 1,275 cases reported for 1993. P. vivax, P. falciparum, P. malariae, and P. ovale accounted for 44%, 44%, 4%, and 3% of cases, respectively. More than one species was present in five persons (<1% of the total number of patients). The infecting species was not determined in 50 (5%) cases. The number of reported malaria cases in U.S. military personnel decreased by 86% (i.e., from 278 cases in 1993 to 38 cases in 1994). Of the U.S. civilians who acquired malaria during travel to foreign countries, 18% had followed a chemoprophylactic drug regimen recommended by CDC for the area to which they had traveled. Five persons became infected while in the United States; the infection was transmitted to two of these persons through transfusion of infected blood products. The remaining three cases, which occurred in Houston, Texas, were probably locally acquired mosquitoborne infections. Four deaths were attributed to malaria. INTERPRETATION: The 20% decrease in the number of malaria cases from 1993 to 1994 resulted primarily from an 86% decrease in cases among U.S. military personnel after withdrawal from Somalia. Because most malaria cases acquired in Somalia during 1993 resulted from infection with P. vivax, there was a proportionately greater decrease during 1994 in the number of cases caused by P. vivax relative to those caused by P. falciparum. ACTIONS TAKEN: Additional information was obtained concerning the four fatal cases and the five cases acquired in the United States. Malaria prevention guidelines were updated and distributed to health-care providers. Persons traveling to a geographic area in which malaria is endemic should take the recommended chemoprophylactic regimen and should use protective measures to prevent mosquito bites. Persons who have a fever or influenza-like illness after returning from a malarious area should seek medical care; medical evaluation should include a blood smear examination for malaria. Malarial infections can be fatal if not promptly diagnosed and treated. Recommendations concerning prevention and treatment of malaria can be obtained from CDC.     

Chemistry of denitrification in sporogenous soil bacteria

Soil sporeforming denitrifying bacteria, Bacillus filaris and Bacillus polymyxa, differ by their cultural-morphological and physiological characteristics, but are similar in the chemistry of dissimilating nitrate reduction. Two processes occur simultaneously: denitrification yielding gaseous nitrogen forms, and nitrate respiration upon which nitrates are reduced to ammonia. The ratio between the two depends on physico-chemical conditions of the environment. The chemistry of dissimilating nitrate reduction by sporeforming bacteria differs therefore from nitrate transformation by other denitrifying microorganisms: Pseudomonas, Micrococcus, Rhizobium, Achromobacter, which, according to the published evidence, are capable only of denitrification.     

Opposite effects of osteogenic protein and transforming growth factor beta on chondrogenesis in cultured long bone rudiments

Osteogenic protein-1 (OP-1, also called BMP-7) is a bone morphogenetic member of the TGF-beta superfamily. In the present study, we examined the effect of recombinant human OP-1 on cartilage and bone formation in organ cultures of metatarsal long bones of mouse embryos and compared the OP-1 effects with those of human TGF-beta 1 and porcine TGF-beta 1 and beta 2. Cartilage formation was determined by measurement of longitudinal growth of whole bone rudiments during culture and by the incorporation of 35SO4 into glycosaminoglycans. Mineralization was monitored by 45Ca incorporation in the acid-soluble fraction and by measuring the length of the calcifying center of the rudiment. Toluidine blue-stained histologic sections were used for quantitative histomorphometric analysis. We found that OP-1 stimulated cartilage growth as determined by sulfate incorporation and that it increased remarkably the width of the long bones ends compared with controls. This effect was partly caused by differentiation of perichondrial cells into chondrocytes, resulting in increased appositional growth. In contrast to OP-1, TGF-beta 1 and beta 2 inhibited cartilage growth and reduced the length of whole bone rudiments compared with controls. In the ossifying center of the bone rudiments, both OP-1 and TGF-beta inhibited cartilage hypertrophy, growth of the bone collar, and matrix mineralization. These data demonstrate that OP-1 and TGF-beta exhibit opposite effects on cartilage growth but similar effects on osteogenesis in embryonic mouse long bone cultures. Since both OP-1 and TGF-beta have been demonstrated in embryonic cartilage and bone, these results suggest that they act as autocrine or paracrine regulators of embryonic bone development.     

Biotechnology core facilities: trends and update

A survey of 128 biotechnology core facilities has provided data on the finances, services, space requirements, and personnel. An average facility had four full-time personnel and 7.5 major instrument systems, and occupied 969 sq. ft. Average total income was $244,000/year, but annual user fee income was only $125,000. Typically, facilities required substantial institutional support or grants. Cost recovery (user fee income divided by total income) averaged 49%. During the last 5 years user fee income, total income, and cost recovery have increased. In-house charges for protein sequencing and peptide synthesis increased approximately 30%, while oligonucleotide synthesis charges decreased by 74%. The costs (charges corrected for subsidy from non-user fee income) for most services did not significantly change, except that oligonucleotide synthesis costs decreased by 25% in 1992. DNA synthesis had the highest throughout per month (116 samples), followed by amino acid analysis (86 samples) and DNA sequencing (67 samples). Other services averaged from 5 to 60 samples. DNA synthesis and purification were the services used by the greatest number of principal investigators. A number of services including DNA sequencing, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, RNA synthesis, electroblotting, and carbohydrate analysis have been introduced in the last 3 years. Although these services are characterized by high levels of methods development and non-user runs, they are offered by twice the percentage of facilities as in 1989, and are increasingly contributing to facility income.     

Pharmacological and second messenger signalling selectivities of cloned P2Y receptors

An autopsy case of a 67-year-old man with typical clinical features of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) characterized by impairment of vertical ocular pursuit movement, pseudobulbar palsy, nuchal stiffness, parkinsonism, and dementia is described. In addition to typical pathological changes of PSP, the present case showed fronto-temporal cortical atrophy, accompanied with various Gallyas/tau-positive neuronal and glial structures such as neurofibrillary tangles, pretangle neurons, glial coiled bodies, astrocytic plaques and argyrophilic threads in the cerebral cortex and subcortical nuclei, and many senile plaques throughout the whole cerebral cortex. The present report suggests that PSP and corticobasal degeneration share a common background in neuronal and glial pathologies, that pathological changes of PSP and Alzheimer's disease are mixed in the entorhinal cortex, amygdala. Meynert nucleus, and hypothalamus, and that dementia with frontal lobe-like syndrome in PSP is related to the frontal and temporal cortical pathologies, and is cortical dementia as well as subcortical dementia.