cruzi Excreted Secreted Antigens (TESA), are released into the blood of an infected host. These circulating parasite antigens could thus be used as highly specific biomarkers of T. cruzi infection. In this study, we have demonstrated that, using a SELEx based approach, parasite specific ligands called aptamers, can be used to detect TESA in the plasma of T. cruzi infected mice. An Enzyme Linked Aptamer (ELA) assay, similar to ELISA, was developed using biotinylated aptamers to demonstrate that these RNA ligands could interact with parasite targets. Aptamer L44 (Apt-L44) showed significant and selleck products specific binding to TESA as well as T. cruzi trypomastigote extract and not to host proteins or proteins

of Leishmania donovani, a related trypanosomatid parasite. Our result also demonstrated that the target of Apt-L44 is conserved in three different strains of T. cruzi. In mice infected with T. cruzi, Apt-L44 demonstrated a significantly higher level of binding compared to non-infected mice

suggesting that it could detect a biomarker of T. cruzi infection. Additionally, Apt-L44 could detect these circulating biomarkers in both the acute phase, from 7 to 28 see more days post infection, and in the chronic phase, from 55 to 230 days post infection. Our results show that Apt-L44 could thus be used in a qualitative ELA assay to detect biomarkers of Chagas disease.”
“Densities of a- and a+c-type threading dislocations for a series of GaN films grown in different modes by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are determined from the x-ray diffraction profiles in skew geometry. The reciprocal space maps are also studied. Theory of x-ray scattering from crystals with dislocations is extended in order to take into account contribution from both threading and misfit dislocations. selleck inhibitor The broadening of the reciprocal space maps along the surface normal and the rotation of the intensity distribution ellipse is attributed to misfit dislocations at the

interface. We find that the presence of a sharp AlN/GaN interface leads to an ordering of misfit dislocations and reduces strain inhomogeneity in GaN films. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.”
“The objective of this study is to present results from our review of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in living-donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients.\n\nSeventy patients with primary LDLT between August 1997 and May 2007 were retrospectively reviewed.\n\nOverall, 9 patients (12.9%) encountered various kinds of MRSA infection after transplantation [peritonitis (6), bacteremia (6), pneumonia (3), wound infection (3), cholangitis (1)]; 4 of these 9 patients died. Of these 4 expired patients, 3 were highly urgent cases with very poor pretransplant status under ventilator support. In one patient, linezolid was effective after teicoplanin failure for severe systemic MRSA infections (bacteremia, peritonitis, cholangitis, pneumonia, and enteritis).