The Pseudomonas aeruginosa protease LasB directly activates IL-1β.

Background: Pulmonary damage by Pseudomonas aeruginosa during cystic fibrosis lung infection and ventilator-associated pneumonia is mediated both by pathogen virulence factors and host inflammation. Impaired immune function due to tissue damage and inflammation, coupled with pathogen multidrug resistance, complicates the management of these deep-seated infections. Pathological inflammation during infection is driven by interleukin-1β (IL-1β), but the molecular processes involved are not fully understood.

Elevated Resting and Postprandial Digestive Proteolytic Activity in Peripheral Blood of Individuals With Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus, With Uncontrolled Cleavage of Insulin Receptors.

: To examine resting and postprandial peripheral protease activity in healthy controls and individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and pre-T2DM. : Individuals with T2DM or pre-T2DM and healthy controls (mean age 55.8 years) were studied before and for a span of 300 minutes following a single high-calorie McDonald's breakfast.

Dielectrophoretic isolation and detection of cancer-related circulating cell-free DNA biomarkers from blood and plasma.

Conventional methods for the isolation of cancer-related circulating cell-free (ccf) DNA from patient blood (plasma) are time consuming and laborious. A DEP approach utilizing a microarray device now allows rapid isolation of ccf-DNA directly from a small volume of unprocessed blood. In this study, the DEP device is used to compare the ccf-DNA isolated directly from whole blood and plasma from 11 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and one normal individual.

Rapid electrokinetic isolation of cancer-related circulating cell-free DNA directly from blood.

Background: Circulating cell-free DNA (ccf-DNA) is becoming an important biomarker for cancer diagnostics and therapy monitoring. The isolation of ccf-DNA from plasma as a "liquid biopsy" may begin to replace more invasive tissue biopsies for the detection and analysis of cancer-related mutations. Conventional methods for the isolation of ccf-DNA from plasma are costly, time-consuming, and complex, preventing the use of ccf-DNA biomarkers for point-of-care diagnostics and limiting other biomedical research applications.