Calorimetry-based profiling of blood plasma from colorectal cancer patients.

Background: Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), a highly sensitive technique for resolving thermally-induced protein folding/unfolding transitions, recently was recognized as a novel tool for disease diagnosis and monitoring. To further elaborate this approach we have applied DSC in a study of blood plasma from patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) at different stages of tumor development and localization.

Methods: Blood plasma from patients diagnosed with CRC was analyzed by DSC.

Slowing the translocation of double-stranded DNA using a nanopore smaller than the double helix.

It is now possible to slow and trap a single molecule of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), by stretching it using a nanopore, smaller in diameter than the double helix, in a solid-state membrane. By applying an electric force larger than the threshold for stretching, dsDNA can be impelled through the pore. Once a current blockade associated with a translocating molecule is detected, the electric field in the pore is switched in an interval less than the translocation time to a value below the threshold for stretching.

Microscopic mechanics of hairpin DNA translocation through synthetic nanopores.

Nanoscale pores have proved useful as a means to assay DNA and are actively being developed as the basis of genome sequencing methods. Hairpin DNA (hpDNA), having both double-helical and overhanging coil portions, can be trapped in a nanopore, giving ample time to execute a sequence measurement. In this article, we provide a detailed account of hpDNA interaction with a synthetic nanopore obtained through extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations.

Analysis of the K-ras/B-raf/Erk signal cascade, p53 and CMAP as markers for tumor progression in colorectal cancer patients.

Colorectal cancer patients may succumb to their disease because of local recurrence or formation of metastasis. To develop a prognostic tool for these fatal types of progression, 23 patients with colorectal carcinoma were included in this study for the detection at the time of surgery of the incidence of K-ras, B-raf and p53 mutations, the phosphorylation status of Erk and the expression of cystatin-like metastasis-associated protein (CMAP) in tumor, mucosa and liver samples. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and PCR-SSCP were used to detect the respective mutations.