Single-chain antibody and its derivatives directed against vascular endothelial growth factor: application for antiangiogenic gene therapy.

Single-chain antibodies (scFv) have an enormous potential for clinical application. However, rapid blood clearance and difficulties in large-scale production of active scFvs have limited the practical use of these antibody fragments. Recently, an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) scFv (scFv V65) was selected in our laboratory from a human antibody phage-display library.

Signal-sequence trap in mammalian and yeast cells: a comparison.

Membrane associated and secreted proteins are translated as precursors containing a signal peptide that allows protein-insertion into the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum and is co-translationally removed in the lumen. The ability of the signal peptide to direct a polypeptide into the secretory pathway is exploited in methods developed to select cDNAs encoding such proteins. Different strategies are known in which cDNA libraries can be screened for signal peptides by the ability of the latter to rescue the translocation of signal sequence-less proteins.

Increased expression of H/T-cadherin in tumor-penetrating blood vessels.

Neovascularization is a prerequisite for tumor growth. Thus, selective destruction of the tumor vasculature should prevent tumor expansion. We have established a method to identify proteins that are specifically expressed on the surface of endothelial cells in tumors.

[Molecular pathologic detection of mycobacteria].

In recent years, significant advances in the diagnosis of mycobacterial infections have been made by the introduction of direct pathogen detection methods. These techniques are usually based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or on a transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) process. The majority of the protocols have been optimized for the detection of mycobacterial nucleic acids in fresh fluid or fresh tissue specimen.