RESUMEN
Palivizumab is a monoclonal antibody indicated for the prevention of serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus infection in infants. The potential for palivizumab to interfere with commercially available respiratory syncytial virus diagnostic tests was demonstrated. Negative test results in palivizumab-treated subjects should be interpreted with caution and confirmed by a nucleic acid amplification-based assay.
Asunto(s)
Anticuerpos Monoclonales Humanizados/química , Inmunoensayo/métodos , Infecciones por Virus Sincitial Respiratorio/diagnóstico , Virus Sincitiales Respiratorios/aislamiento & purificación , Virología/métodos , Anticuerpos Monoclonales Humanizados/administración & dosificación , Anticuerpos Antivirales/sangre , Antivirales/administración & dosificación , Antivirales/química , Humanos , Cavidad Nasal/inmunología , Cavidad Nasal/virología , Palivizumab , Juego de Reactivos para Diagnóstico , Infecciones por Virus Sincitial Respiratorio/tratamiento farmacológico , Infecciones por Virus Sincitial Respiratorio/inmunología , Infecciones por Virus Sincitial Respiratorio/virología , Virus Sincitiales Respiratorios/inmunología , Sensibilidad y EspecificidadRESUMEN
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein plays a significant role in the alteration of cellular gene expression. We expressed HCV core protein using a tetracycline-inducible expression system in HeLa cell lines. Profiles of gene expression in cells expressing the HCV core protein were compared with those in control cells by use of microarray analysis. Cells expressing the HCV core protein showed 86 down-regulated and 41 up-regulated genes, compared with control cells. One gene affected was cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). Levels of both COX-2 RNA and the Cox-2 protein were significantly inhibited after the expression of HCV core protein in HeLa cells. Similar results were obtained in hepatoma cells and in a functional assay that measured the production of the Cox-2 protein in response to a mitogenic stimulus. The inhibition of the Cox-2 protein could serve as a means of muting the cellular inflammatory response during HCV infection. Correlation of these findings with analysis of clinical specimens from chronically infected patients should lend further significance to the down-regulation of the inflammatory response via Cox-2.
Asunto(s)
Regulación Enzimológica de la Expresión Génica , Hepacivirus , Prostaglandina-Endoperóxido Sintasas/genética , Proteínas del Núcleo Viral/farmacología , Secuencia de Bases , Clonación Molecular , Ciclooxigenasa 2 , Cartilla de ADN , Células HeLa , Hepatitis C/enzimología , Hepatitis C/fisiopatología , Humanos , Inflamación , Proteínas de la Membrana , TransfecciónRESUMEN
A diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia and empyema was established by real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed in pleural fluid and tissue samples from a child in whom cultures were negative. This case demonstrates that the use of solid-phase nucleic acid purification technology and real-time fluorescence PCR have an application in the rapid diagnosis of S. pneumoniae pneumonia.