Establishment of the national reference standard for tetanus toxoid in Thailand.

The use of reference materials is the basis of standardization and quality control of biologicals such as vaccines produced by different manufacturers and lot-to-lot consistency. The aim of this study was to establish a secondary local and national reference standard of adsorbed tetanus toxoid that can be used for tetanus toxoid vaccine potency testing. Concentrated bulk of tetanus toxoid was adjuvanted and aliquoted before lyophilization.

A protein (ORF2) encoded by the latency-related gene of bovine herpesvirus 1 interacts with DNA.

Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1), like other members of the Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily, establishes latency in sensory neurons. The virally encoded latency-related RNA (LR-RNA) is expressed abundantly in latently infected sensory neurons and encodes several proteins, including ORF2. An LR mutant virus with stop codons at the amino terminus of ORF2 does not reactivate from latency after treatment with the synthetic corticosteroid dexamethasone, in part because it induces higher levels of apoptosis during the establishment of latency.

Human papillomavirus 16 variants from Zambian women with normal pap smears.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 is the most prevalent high-risk viral genotype associated with cervical cancer. Six distinct phylogenetic clusters of HPVs have been identified and are distributed differently across five continents. HPV16 DNA was extracted from cervicolavage samples from women with normal pap smears.

Viral trans-factor independent replication of human papillomavirus genomes.

Background: Papillomaviruses (PVs) establish a persistent infection in the proliferating basal cells of the epithelium. The viral genome is replicated and maintained as a low-copy nuclear plasmid in basal keratinocytes. Bovine and human papillomaviruses (BPV and HPV) are known to utilize two viral proteins; E1, a DNA helicase, and E2, a transcription factor, which have been considered essential for viral DNA replication.

Analysis of cis-elements that facilitate extrachromosomal persistence of human papillomavirus genomes.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are maintained latently in dividing epithelial cells as nuclear plasmids. Two virally encoded proteins, E1, a helicase, and E2, a transcription factor, are important players in replication and stable plasmid maintenance in host cells. Recent experiments in yeast have demonstrated that viral genomes retain replication and maintenance function independently of E1 and E2 [Angeletti, P.

Multiplolides A and B, new antifungal 10-membered lactones from Xylaria multiplex.

Two new 10-membered lactones, namely, multiplolides A (1) and B (2), were isolated from the broth extract of the fungus Xylaria multiplex BCC 1111. Chemical structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated on the basis of their spectral data. Multiplolides A (1) and B (2) exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans with IC(50) values of 7 and 2 microg/mL, respectively.

Antimycobacterial and antiplasmodial cyclodepsipeptides from the insect pathogenic fungus Paecilomyces tenuipes BCC 1614.

Bioassay-guided fractionation of the crude extract from the insect pathogenic fungus Paecilomyces tenuipes BCC 1614 led to the isolation and identification of two antimycobacterial and antiplasmodial cyclodepsipeptides, beauvericin and beauvericin A.