The Human Urinary Proteome Fingerprint Database UPdb.

The use of human urine as a diagnostic tool has many advantages, such as ease of sample acquisition and noninvasiveness. However, the discovery of novel biomarkers, as well as biomarker patterns, in urine is hindered mainly by a lack of comparable datasets. To fill this gap, we assembled a new urinary fingerprint database.

Differential protein expression profiling in BSE disease.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting cattle. Current tests for the detection of BSE are based solely on the only definitive marker of the disease, an abnormal conformer (PrP(d)), of the host encoded prion protein (PrP(c)). Recent evidence that other transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases can be present in the absence of PrP(d), coupled with the need to establish pre-mortem diagnostic assays have led to a search for alternative diagnostic approaches.

Differential protein profiling as a potential multi-marker approach for TSE diagnosis.

Background: Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy describes a family of diseases affecting both man and animals. Current tests for the diagnosis of these diseases are based on the detection of an abnormal misfolded form of the host protein PrP which is found within the central nervous and lymphoreticular systems of affected animals. Recently, concern that this marker may not be as reliable as previously thought, coupled with an urgentneed for a pre-clinical live animal test, has led to the search for alternative assays for the detection of TSE disease.

Microdissection: a method developed to investigate mechanisms involved in transmissible spongiform encephalopathy pathogenesis.

Background: The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of neurodegenerative diseases affecting both human and animals. The neuroanatomical changes which occur in the central nervous system (CNS) of TSE infected animals include vacuolation, gliosis, neuronal loss and the deposition of a disease specific protein, PrPSc. Experimental murine models of scrapie, a TSE of sheep, have revealed that pathology may be confined to specific brain areas with targeting of particular neuronal subsets depending on route of injection and scrapie isolate.