Introduction: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may offer an alternative diagnostic option when clinical signs and symptoms suggest visceral leishmaniasis (VL) but microscopic scanning and serological tests provide negative results. PCR using urine is sensitive enough to diagnose human visceral leishmaniasis (VL). However, DNA quality is a crucial factor for successful amplification.
Methods: A comparative performance evaluation of DNA extraction methods from the urine of patients with VL using two commercially available extraction kits and two phenol-chloroform protocols was conducted to determine which method produces the highest quality DNA suitable for PCR amplification, as well as the most sensitive, fast and inexpensive method. All commercially available kits were able to shorten the duration of DNA extraction.
Results: With regard to detection limits, both phenol: chloroform extraction and the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit provided good results (0.1 pg of DNA) for the extraction of DNA from a parasite smaller than Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (< 100fg of DNA). However, among 11 urine samples from subjects with VL, better performance was achieved with the phenol:chloroform method (8/11) relative to the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (4/11), with a greater number of positive samples detected at a lower cost using PCR.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that phenol:chloroform with an ethanol precipitation prior to extraction is the most efficient method in terms of yield and cost, using urine as a non-invasive source of DNA and providing an alternative diagnostic method at a low cost.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0233-2013 | DOI Listing |
Int J Gynecol Cancer
January 2025
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Gynecologic Oncology), Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India. Electronic address:
Objective: To isolate and quantify cell-free DNA, analysis for p53 mutations, and correlation with tumor burden in women with epithelial ovarian cancer compared with benign and borderline epithelial ovarian tumors.
Methods: In this case-control study, plasma samples of eligible women collected 1 hour before surgery and based on final histopathology, women with epithelial ovarian cancer recruited as cases and borderline, and benign ovarian tumors as controls. Cell-free DNA extracted from plasma serum and quantified using Nanodrop Spectrophotometer.
Anal Chem
January 2025
Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors, University of Regensburg, Universitaetsstr. 31, Regensburg 93053, Germany.
To ensure high quality of food and water, the identification of traces of pathogens is mandatory. Rapid nucleic acid-based tests shorten traditional detection times while maintaining low detection limits. Challenging is the loss of nucleic acids during necessary purification processes, since elution off solid surfaces is not efficient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNucleic Acids Res
January 2025
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3958, United States.
Growth in the development of engineered polymerases for synthetic biology has led to renewed interest in assays that can measure the fidelity of polymerases that are capable of synthesizing artificial genetic polymers (XNAs). Conventional approaches require purifying the XNA intermediate of a replication cycle (DNA → XNA → DNA) by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which is a slow, costly, and inefficient process that requires a large-scale transcription reaction and careful extraction of the XNA strand from the gel slice. In an effort to streamline the assay, we developed a purification-free approach in which the XNA transcription and reverse transcription steps occur inside the matrix of a hydrogel-coated magnetic particle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Soc Rev
January 2025
Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
DNA is not only a centrally important molecule in biology: the specificity of bonding that allows it to be the primary information storage medium for life has also allowed it to become one of the most promising materials for designing intricate, self-assembling structures at the nanoscale. While the applications of these structures are both broad and highly promising, the self-assembly process itself has attracted interest not only for the practical applications of designing structures with more efficient assembly pathways, but also due to a desire to understand the principles underlying self-assembling systems more generally, of which DNA-based systems provide intriguing and unique examples. Here, we review the fundamental physical principles that underpin the self-assembly process in the field of DNA nanotechnology, with a specific focus on simulation and modelling and what we can learn from them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResistance to radiotherapy remains a critical barrier in treating colorectal cancer (CRC), particularly in cases of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). To identify key kinases involved in CRC radioresistance, we employed a kinase-targeted CRISPR-Cas9 library screen. This approach aimed to identify potential kinase inhibitors as radiosensitizers.
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