• Toxicological Research
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.109-116
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• 2000

The purposes of our study were to optimize the conditions of the screening and testing methods for endocrine disruptors, to characterize these assays using several compounds with well-defined endocrine activity, and to compare the sensitivity between these assays currently undergoing validation. Two in vitro test systems, MCF-7 cells proliferation (E-screen assay) and competitive binding to estrogen receptors (ER) were selected to evaluate the estrogenic effects. 17$\beta$-Estradiol (E2) and diethylstilbestrol (DES) were used as a positive control in vitro test. Also, E2 and ethinyl estradiol (EE) were used as a positive control in vivo uterotrophic assay. In in vitro test, E2 and DES showed a strong estrogenic response at concentration of 1.0 nM. In uterotrophic assay, E2 (0.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg) and EE (0.3 $\mu\textrm{g}$/kg) produced a significant increase in uterus and vagina weight in both immature and ovariectomized rats. Although we did not com-pared the specificity between in vivo and in vitro assays, these assay systems may serve as a good tool for endocrine disruptors screening methods. Our data indicate that these assay systems exhibit some difference in their sensitivity to the same estrogenic compounds. Therefore, as a first rapid screening assay for estrogenic activity qf unknown chemicals, at least two assay systems should probably be carried out with a view of high sensitivity and standardization conditions. Also, a careful validation tests are necessary to obtain a reasonable degree of reproducibility.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제67권4호
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• pp.331-337
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• 2009

Background: The whole-blood interferon-gamma release assay (QuantiFERON-TB Gold [QFT-G]: Cellestis, Carnegie, Victoria, Australia) has been studied primarily for the use of diagnosing active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) or latent TB. In the present study, the usefulness of QFT-G was evaluated for the diagnosis of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EP-TB). Methods: From June 2006 to February 2009, we evaluated the usefulness of QFT-G in patients (n=65) suspected with EP-TB, retrospectively. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the QFT-G assay were analyzed. Results: EP-TB was diagnosed in 33 (51%) participants. The overall sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the QFT-G assay for EP-TB were 78%, 79%, 81%, and 77%, respectively. Of the 33 with EP-TB, 14 (42%) were diagnosed with TB pleurisy, 7 (21%) with TB lymphadenitis, 7 (21%) with intestinal TB, and 5 (15%) with EP-TB in other sites. In subgroup analyses according by site of infection, the QFT-G showed 86% sensitivity, 64% specificity, and 78% NPV in TB pleurisy. On the other hand, the sensitivity, specificity, and NPV of the assay were 71%, 83% and 71%, respectively in TB lymphadenitis, and 86%, 100% and 88%, respectively in intestinal TB. Among the patients with suspected alternative site EP-TB, the sensitivity, specificity, and NPV of the assay were 50%, 80% and 67%, respectively. Conclusion: The QFT-G assay showed moderate diagnostic accuracy in EP-TB. However, negative QFT-G assay does not exclude EP-TB because of the low NPV of this assay.

• 한국식품위생안전성학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.129-132
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• 1996

Recently, as concern about the residual antibiotics in milk increase, the detection methods of residual antibiotics used extensevely at the present time were investigated and compared to their properties and the detection limits of variable antibiotics. At first, comparactive tests of the detectable sensitivity of 4 test organisms, B. cereus, B. subtilis, M.luteus, B.stearothermophilus C-953, were performed by disc assay. As a result, B.stearothermophilus was the most sensitive strain of all other strains and showe the detect limit of 5-50 ppb for penlicillins (PCs). And also, B.subitilis was showed the more effective detection limit, 200-400 ppb, for aminoglycosides (AGs) and M.luteus was showed predominant sensitivity , 50-500 ppb for macrolides(MLs) and B.cereus was the most sensitive strain for tetracyclines (TCs) and showed the detection limit of 100-400 ppb. Therefore, each test strains were showed a different sensitivity in the detection of the different antibiotic families. When the detection limit of disc assay and other methods were compared, TTCmethod was less sensitive than other methods showing 5-50 ppb detectable lebel for PCs. Also, for the detection of other antibiotic families TTC method was showed the worst sensitivity and Delvo and Charm Farm tests were similar to the detectable properties of AGs and MLs. Although disc assay was showed the similar detection limit for PCs with Delvo and Charm Farm, it was more widely effective for the detection of kanamycin, erythromycin, chlortetracycline, doxycycline, verginiamycin and so on than Delvo or Charm Farm. CharmII test was showed the best sensitivity for the most of antibiotics except neomycin and gentamycin. But it was necessary that different tests must be performed to each antibiotic family and so it was regarded that the effectiveness of that method was low.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제47권1호
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• pp.173-182
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• 2020

Human Astrovirus (HuAstV), known as a waterborne virus, is a group IV positive-sense single-stranded RNA that belongs to Astroviridae. The first outbreak of HuAstV was reported in England in 1975. HuAstV can exist not only among clinical patients but also in various water environments, such as water for agriculture and vegetables. For diagnosis of HuAstV from water samples, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system has been developed. However, the PCR-based diagnostic method has problems in field application, such as reaction time, sensitivity and specificity. For this reason, in this study we developed the loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay (LAMP) system, aimed specifically at HuAstV. Three prepared LAMP primer sets were tested by specificity, non-specificity and sensitivity; one LAMP primer set was selected with optimum reaction temperature. The developed LAMP primer set reaction conditions were confirmed at 62℃, and detection sensitivity was 1 fg/μL. In addition, restriction enzyme HaeIII (GG/CC) was introduced to confirm that the LAMP reaction was positive. As a result, selected LAMP primer set was 100 - 1000 times more specific, rapid, and sensitive than conventional-nested PCR methods. For verification of the developed LAMP assay, twenty samples of cDNA from groundwater samples were tested. We expect that the developed LAMP assay will be used to diagnose HuAstV from various samples.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• 제5권5호
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• pp.362-365
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• 2000

A rapid immunochromatographic assay kit using whole blood to screen hepatitis B surface antigen was developed and evaluated by using sera from 240 patients. The reference diagnosis was based on the results obtained with GENEDIA Anti-HBs Rapid kit which is very similar to the above kit except for the use of serum. The test demonstrated a good correlation with the reference immunochromatographic assay kit, that is, the sensitivity and the specificity of the kit was 100%, respectively. The rapid test kit using whole blood should be more convenient and useful for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus because the kit does not need machines and time to prepare serum. In addition, this kit is safe from inadvertent infection during sample treatment because the blood is sterilized with hydrogen peroxide, eliminates the procedure required to prepare serum and reduces the possibility of exposure to infectious agents.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.99-105
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• 2006

목 적 : 현재 폐구균 혈청형 분석을 위해 사용중인 Quellung 반응과 비교하여, multiplex assay 방법에 의한 폐구균 혈청형 분석의 유용성을 확인하고, Quellung 반응에 의한 혈청형 분석의 정확성을 검증하였다. 방 법 : 연세 의료원 신촌 세브란스 병원에서 폐구균 감염이 확인된 환자로부터 분리된 35주의 검체를 이용하였다. Quellung 반응을 통한 혈청형 분석과 multiplex latex bead를 이용한 유세포 분석기기법을 통한 혈청형 분석을 시행한 후 양 방법간의 혈청형 분석을 비교하였다. 결 과 : Multiplex assay 방법에 제시된 대로 각각의 혈청형에서 평균 형광치 값의 감소를 확인할 수 있었다. 비교를 위해 시행한 14개 혈청형 중 11개 혈청형에서 비교가 가능했으며, 분석 비교가 가능했던 27검체 중 17검체에서 혈청형이 일치하는 결과를 보였다. 결 론 : 기존의 Quellung 반응의 경우 혈청형 분석에 많은 시간과 노력이 소요되며 일정량의 오차가 발생하는 문제가 있어, 이를 보완하기 위한 새로운 방법들이 시도되고 있다. 향후 보다 많은 혈청형을 대상으로 multiplex latex bead를 이용한 혈청형 분석을 시행할 필요가 있으며 이를 통해 multiplex assay와 Quellung 반응을 비교하며, Quellung 반응의 정확도를 올리기 위한 노력이 함께 수반되어야 할 것이다. 현재까지의 예비 결과로 볼 때 새로운 방법의 적용 가능성은 매우 높다고 할 수 있다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.808-815
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• 2017

We demonstrated the quantitative detection of a toxin-producing Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) strain with the laboratory protocol of the NanoGene assay. The NanoGene assay was selected because its laboratory protocol is in the process of being transplanted into a portable system. The mcyD gene of M. aeruginosa was targeted and, as expected, its corresponding fluorescence signal was linearly proportional to the mcyD gene copy number. The sensitivity of the NanoGene assay for this purpose was validated using both dsDNA mcyD gene amplicons and genomic DNAs (gDNA). The limit of detection was determined to be 38 mcyD gene copies per reaction and 9 algal cells/ml water. The specificity of the assay was also demonstrated by the addition of gDNA extracted from environmental algae into the hybridization reaction. Detection of M. aeruginosa was performed in the environmental samples with environmentally relevant sensitivity (${\sim}10^5$ algal cells/ml) and specificity. As expected, M. aeruginosa were not detected in nonspecific environmental algal gDNA over the range of $2{\times}10^0$ to $2{\times}10^7$ algal cells/ml.

• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.295-300
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• 2009

Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) still remains to be the most dreadful infectious disease affecting almost every country. In the present study, we developed a simple and rapid but accurate and sensitive assay method for detecting MTB using microplate hybridization assay. For this, a selective region of the rpoB gene was used to design PCR primers, and MTB and Mycobacterium genus-specific probe molecules. The specificity of the assay was confirmed using fifteen different mycobacterial reference strains and twelve different non-mycobacterial reference strains, and the sensitivity was determined to be 100 fg using genomic DNA of MTB reference strain, H37Rv. Subsequently, a total of 62 sputum samples with diverse smear scores and culture positive results were used to evaluate the kit performance. In brief, the specificity and the sensitivity of the assay were 100% and 98.4%, respectively.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.573-577
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• 2013

A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay allows rapid diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii infection. In the present study, the LAMP assay was evaluated using blood from both naturally and experimentally infected pigs. The sensitivity of the LAMP assay was compared with that of Q-PCR. Both assays detected T. gondii in the blood of experimentally infected pigs, with 100% agreement. In infected blood samples, the parasite was detected as early as 2 days post-infection and reached a peak in 3-5 days. In 216 field serum samples, the detection rates of LAMP and Q-PCR assays were 6.9% and 7.8%, respectively. This result indicates that the sensitivity of the LAMP assay was slightly lower than that of the Q-PCR assay. However, the LAMP may be an attractive diagnostic method in conditions where sophisticated and expensive equipment is unavailable. This assay could be a powerful supplement to current diagnostic methods.

• Journal of Life Science
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.94-98
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• 2001

Type I signal peptidase cleaves the signal sequence from the amino terminus of membrane and secreted proteins afters these protein insert across the membrane. This enzyme serves as a potential target for the development of novel antibacterial agents due to its unique physiological and biochemical properties. Despite considerable research, the signal peptidase assay still remains improvement to provide further understanding of the mechanism and high-throughput inhibitor screening of this enzyme. In this paper, three known signal peptidase assays are tested with an E. coli D276A mutant signal peptidase to distinguish the sensitivity of each assays. In vitro assay using the procoat synthesized by in vitro transcription translation shows that the D276A signal peptidase I was inactive while in vivo processing of pro-OmpA expressed in the temperature-sensitive E. coli strain IT41 as well as in vitro assay using pro-OmpA nuclease A substrate show that D276A signal peptidase I has activity like wild-type signal peptidase. These results suggest that in vitro assay using the pro-OmpA nuclease A and in vivo pro-OmpA processing assay are more sensitive monitors than in vitro assay using the pro-coat. In conculsion, caution should be used when interpreting the in vitro results using the procoat.