This is the first report on the detection of an adenovirus in great tits. The methods, described in this work, proved suitable for the recovery of nucleic acid samples that contain irreplaceable microbial genomic DNA but are only available in limited quantities. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The hepatitis C virus (HCV)

genotype is the most FK506 chemical structure important factor in predicting the outcome of chronic hepatitis C treatment. Therefore, convenient and accurate HCV genotyping methods for routine laboratory testing are needed. In this study, to identify the HCV genotypes, an oligonucleotide DNA chip was designed using 15 probes from the 5′-untranslated region. Reverse transcription was combined with asymmetric polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to obtain an amplified product for hybridization without the need fora denaturation step. In addition, a biotin-labeled PCR MI-503 mouse product

and streptavidin-Cy3 conjugate were cohybridized simultaneously. Clinical sera from Korean and French patients (n = 112) were used to compare the chip results with those obtained by direct sequencing. The DNA chip showed 100% accuracy for the commercial panels and had a lower detection limit of 2.8 x 10(2) IU/ml. Agreement levels between the chip and sequencing results at the genotype and subgenotype levels were 100% and 94.6% (106/112), respectively. By the combined reverse transcription-asymmetric PCR and cohybridization methods, the DNA chip reduced assay time and was convenient to use. This DNA chip may be useful for identifying HCV genotypes in clinical laboratories. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“This study compared five serological tests with Western blot from University of Washington to determine the most accurate method for detecting antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in a male population in Kisumu, Kenya. A random sample of 250 fishermen from 18 beaches along Lake Victoria underwent serological Selinexor supplier testing by two generations of the HerpeSelect HSV-2 ELISA (“”Focus Gen

1″” and “”Focus Gen 2″”), Kalon HSV-2 ELISA (“”Kalon”"), Biokit HSV-2 Rapid Test (“”Biokit”"), and HerpeSelect Express Rapid HSV-2 (“”Express”") against the Western blot test (“”WB”") as the “”gold standard”". Sensitivity and specificity of tests in this population with a high prevalence of HSV-2 (58% by WB) were: Focus Gen 1: 98.6% and 63.5%; Focus Gen 2: 99.3% and 52.3%; Biokit: 66% and 90.9%; Express: 99.3% and 44.3% and Kalon: 98.6% and 85.7%. Increasing the positive cut-off value improved the specificity of the Focus Gen 2-84.9% and Kalon to 92.2%. Focus Gen 2 offered no improvement in specificity over that of Focus Gen 1. Neither rapid assay could be recommended as either a stand-alone assay or as a confirmatory test. The results of Kalon using a cut-off of 1.5 were the most concordant with those of WB for all the approaches tested.