Development of a standardized real time PCR for Torque teno viruses (TTV) viral load detection and quantification: A new tool for immune monitoring.

Background: Torque teno viruses (TTV) are small DNA viruses whose replication is closely linked to immune status. A growing number of publications underlined the potential of TTV viral load as an indicator of immunosuppression.

Objectives: To demonstrate the analytical performance of the first standardized RUO (Research Use Only) assay to detect and quantify human TTV DNA in whole blood and plasma.

Prevalence of West Nile virus in wild American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) of southern Quebec, Canada.

We assessed West Nile virus (WNV) antibody prevalence in American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) in southern Quebec by sampling 152 birds during the 2003-05 breeding seasons. We analyzed the dependence of antibody prevalence on age group, year, and gender; a significant relationship was detected only between age (adults vs. nestlings) and antibody prevalence.

Generation of tumors in transgenic mice expressing the SV40 T antigen under the control of ovarian-specific promoter 1.

Objective: The ovarian-specific promoter, OSP-1, which was cloned from the transcript of a rat retrovirus-like element specifically expressed in ovarian tissue, was tested for its ability to drive ovary-specific transcription in transgenic mice.

Methods: Transgenic mice were generated with the lacZ reporter gene (OSP-lacZ) or the early region of SV40 virus (OSP-TAg) placed under the control of the OSP-1 promoter. OSP-lacZ and OSP-TAg transgenic animals were examined, respectively, for the expression of lacZ (OSP-lacZ) or the development of tumors (OSP-TAg).

Focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis in mice with podocyte-specific expression of mutant alpha-actinin-4.

Mutations in the gene encoding alpha-actinin-4 (ACTN4), an actin crosslinking protein, are associated with a form of autosomal dominant focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). To better study its progression, a transgenic mouse model was developed by expressing murine alpha-actinin-4 containing a mutation analogous to that affecting a human FSGS family in a podocyte-specific manner using the murine nephrin promoter. Consistent with human ACTN4-associated FSGS, which shows incomplete penetrance, a proportion of the transgenic mice exhibited significant albuminuria (8 of 18), while the overall average systolic BP was elevated in both proteinuric and non-proteinuric ACTN4-mutant mice.