Utilization of recombinase polymerase amplification method combined with lateral flow dipstick for visual detection of respiratory syncytial virus.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major causative agent of respiratory tract infection necessitating hospitalization in children. A rapid diagnostic method would facilitate early detection of RSV infection and timely implementation of special treatment. Here, a reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) assay combined with lateral flow dipstick (LFD) was evaluated for rapid visual detection of RSV. The primers were designed to target the conserved L gene. The RT-RPA-LFD assay could simultaneously detect RSV subtype A and B with the same detection limit of 10 copies of a given RNA molecule. Moreover, the assay showed no cross-reactivity with other common human pathogens. The performance of the RT-RPA-LFD assay was evaluated by testing 136 nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs). The agreement of the detection results between RT-RPA-LFD and qRT-PCR was 100% (34 positive and 102 negative cases). In summary, the developed RT-RPA-LFD assay had good performance in detecting RSV in clinical specimens, thus providing a novel alternative solution for the detection of RSV under field conditions.

Synthesis and anticancer evaluation of thiazolyl-chalcones.

Thirty-seven (E)-1-(4-methyl-2-arylaminothiazol-5-yl)-3-arylprop-2-en-1-ones were synthesized via Claisen-Schmidt condensation of 1-(4-methyl-2-(arylamino)thiazol-5-yl)ethanone with the corresponding arylaldehydes. All these thiazolyl-chalcones were characterized and evaluated by MTT assay on human cancer cell lines BGC-823, PC-3, NCI-H460, BEL-7402 in vitro. Compounds 5, 8, 26, 37 and 41 are effective against cancer cell lines with IC(50)s below 10 µM. The antitumor activity in ICR mice bearing sarcoma 180 tumors indicates compounds 10 and 41 have moderate in vivo activity with 22-25% tumor-weight inhibition.