Diagnosis of naturally occurring toxoplasmosis by bronchoalveolar lavage in a cat     

Brownlee L  Sellon RK 《Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association》2001,37(3):251-255

A 5-year-old cat presented with a history of fever and respiratory distress of 7 days' duration. The cat did not respond to initial symptomatic treatment. Through use of a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) technique, the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis was obtained rapidly without evidence of adverse effects to the cat. Antemortem diagnosis of naturally occurring active Toxoplasma gondii infection can be difficult in cats. Identification of organisms obtained by BAL may be beneficial in the diagnosis of feline toxoplasmosis.  相似文献   

Candida parapsilosis complex infection in a cutaneous lesion from a dog: Spotlight on an opportunistic pathogen of potential increasing importance     

Niki Skeldon  Melanie Dobromylskyj  Debra Fews  William Hayden 《Veterinary clinical pathology / American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology》2020,49(4):655-659

Fine-needle aspirates from a 1.5-cm cutaneous mass in a Cocker Spaniel were submitted for cytologic examination. Marked pyogranulomatous inflammation and fungal organisms were present, identified as Candida parapsilosis complex by MALDI-ToF following fungal culture. The fungal infection was considered secondary or an incidental finding, following the diagnosis of a benign keratinizing lesion by histopathologic examination of the excised mass. This case is presented to increase awareness and describe the cytologic features of a potential pathogen, which is of increasing importance in human medicine but has a limited presence in the veterinary literature despite the potential for a similar significance.  相似文献   

Status and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide     

Stuart SN  Chanson JS  Cox NA  Young BE  Rodrigues AS  Fischman DL  Waller RW 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2004,306(5702):1783-1786

The first global assessment of amphibians provides new context for the well-publicized phenomenon of amphibian declines. Amphibians are more threatened and are declining more rapidly than either birds or mammals. Although many declines are due to habitat loss and overutilization, other, unidentified processes threaten 48% of rapidly declining species and are driving species most quickly to extinction. Declines are nonrandom in terms of species' ecological preferences, geographic ranges, and taxonomic associations and are most prevalent among Neotropical montane, stream-associated species. The lack of conservation remedies for these poorly understood declines means that hundreds of amphibian species now face extinction.  相似文献   

Host immune system gene targeting by a viral miRNA   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Stern-Ginossar N  Elefant N  Zimmermann A  Wolf DG  Saleh N  Biton M  Horwitz E  Prokocimer Z  Prichard M  Hahn G  Goldman-Wohl D  Greenfield C  Yagel S  Hengel H  Altuvia Y  Margalit H  Mandelboim O 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2007,317(5836):376-381

Virally encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been discovered in herpesviruses. However, their biological roles are mostly unknown. We developed an algorithm for the prediction of miRNA targets and applied it to human cytomegalovirus miRNAs, resulting in the identification of the major histocompatibility complex class I-related chain B (MICB) gene as a top candidate target of hcmv-miR-UL112. MICB is a stress-induced ligand of the natural killer (NK) cell activating receptor NKG2D and is critical for the NK cell killing of virus-infected cells and tumor cells. We show that hcmv-miR-UL112 specifically down-regulates MICB expression during viral infection, leading to decreased binding of NKG2D and reduced killing by NK cells. Our results reveal a miRNA-based immunoevasion mechanism that appears to be exploited by human cytomegalovirus.  相似文献   

PCR detection ofclavibacter michiganensis subsp.sepedonicus- infected tuber samples in a plate capture assay     

Debra Baer  Emily Mitzel  Julie Pasche  Neil C. Gudmestad 《American Journal of Potato Research》2001,78(4):269-277

The speed and sensitivity of PCR-based assays allow shorter turnaround times for the detection of pathogens for which culture and serological methods are difficult or unavailable. PCR was performed with primer sets Cms50 and Cms72, designed previously by Millset al. (1997) through subtractive hybridization to detectClavibacter michiganensis subspeciessepedonicus (Cms). In bacterial suspensions, fewer than three cells/10 ul reaction were detected after PCR amplicons were hybridized with specific DIG-labeled DNA probes in an enzyme-linked oligonucleosorbent assay (ELOSA). In naturally infected tuber samples representing three cultivars of potato, the diagnostic sensitivity of PCR/ ELOSA was 96%, while the specificity exceeded 99%. PCR/ELOSA detectedCms in infected tuber samples with equal sensitivity regardless of colony morphology, potato cultivar, or primer sets.  相似文献   

Extraction and Activation of Wheat Polyphenol Oxidase by Detergents: Biochemistry and Applications     

Aravind K. Jukanti  Phil L. Bruckner  Debra K. Habernicht  Curt R. Foster  John M. Martin  Andreas M. Fischer 《Cereal Chemistry》2003,80(6):712-716

Polyphenol oxidases (PPOs) from several plant species, including wheat, have been implicated in undesirable brown discolorations of food products. It has been demonstrated that these enzymes are often present in a latent form or are membrane‐associated, necessitating detergent or other treatments to obtain fully active preparations. Here, the influence of different detergents on wheat meal and flour PPOs was investigated. Extraction in presence of 50 mM SDS led to a 5‐ to 15‐fold increase in PPO activity, making quantitative assays in flour from low‐PPO lines more robust. Among a series of additional nonionic, anionic, and cationic detergents tested, only n ‐lauroylsarcosine increased extractable PPO activity to a degree comparable to that of SDS. Additional experiments suggested that a large fraction of wheat meal PPOs may be membrane‐associated and that SDS is able to activate PPOs extracted from high‐activity but not from low‐activity wheat lines. PPO activities assayed after SDS extraction of meal and flour were highly correlated with each other and with activity determined in whole (intact) kernels in absence of SDS. Correlation coefficients between PPO activities measured with all these methods and noodle brightness were about equal, indicating that activities assayed after SDS extraction are useful for germplasm screening and quality prediction.  相似文献