A newly developed miniaturized heart-lung machine--expression of inflammation in a small animal model.

Cardiopulmonary bypass may cause severe inflammatory reactions and multiorgan failure, especially in premature and low-weight infants. This is due in part to the large area of contact with extrinsic surfaces and the essential addition of foreign blood. Thus, we developed a new miniaturized heart-lung machine (MiniHLM) with a total static priming volume of 102mL (including arterial and venous lines) and tested it in a small animal model.

Fully "Recombinant Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays" Using Genetically Engineered Single-Chain Antibody Fusion Proteins for Detection of Citrus tristeza virus.

ABSTRACT Recombinant single-chain variable fragment antibodies (scFv) that bind specifically to Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), which cause the most detrimental viral disease in the citrus industry worldwide, were obtained from the hybridoma cell lines 3DF1 and 3CA5. These scFv were genetically fused with dimerization domains as well as with alkaline phosphatase, respectively, and diagnostic reagents were produced by expressing these fusion proteins in bacterial cultures. The engineered antibodies were successfully used for CTV diagnosis in plants by tissue print enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and double antibody sandwich-ELISA.

Successful oral prime-immunization with VP60 from rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus produced in transgenic plants using different fusion strategies.

Expression levels of vaccine antigens in transgenic plants have important consequences in their use as edible vaccines. The major structural protein VP60 from the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) has been produced in transgenic plants using different strategies to compare its accumulation in plant tissues. The highest expressing plants were those presenting stable, complex, high-density structures formed by VP60, suggesting the importance of multisubunit structures for the stability of this protein in plant cells.

Measurement of antibody-membrane interactions by surface plasmon resonance.

Due to problems of immobilizing functional tumor antigens in their natural conformation on surfaces for immunoassays, it is often difficult to evaluate the binding of antibodies derived from phage display libraries depleted and selected by panning on cell lines and living tumor cells. Performing cell membrane based ELISA methods does not reveal any up front kinetic binding information and depends on the performance of secondary antibodies and substrates. To overcome these limitations, we developed a new method to visualize direct antibody-cell membrane interactions by surface plasmon resonance using the Biacore 3000 and on-line signal subtraction on antigen-negative cell membrane vesicles.

New device and method for capture, reverse transcription and nested PCR in a single closed-tube.

A device and improved method based on the use of a compartmentalized Eppendorf tube that allows capture, reverse transcription and nested-PCR in a single closed-tube has been developed and patented. The main advantages of the system are the high sensitivity obtained, the simplicity, the low risk of contamination and the easy establishment of adequate conditions for nested-PCR. The method has been successfully applied to the detection and characterization of citrus tristeza closterovirus and plum pox potyvirus isolates in plant tissues and single aphids squashed on paper.