• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.100-104
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• 2011

Background: Malaria is a problematic disease in Korea, and microscopic examination of Giemsa-stained blood smear has been used as the gold standard for its diagnosis. However, this technique is time-consuming and has low sensitivity in samples with low numbers of malarial parasites (<20 parasites/μL). Here, we evaluated the performance characteristics of the LG Advansure^TM Malaria P.f./P.v. real-time QPCR (LG life sciences, Korea). Methods: Blood samples from 173 persons who visited Korea University Ansan Hospital were evaluated. QPCR was performed in 73 malaria patients and 100 healthy subjects by using the LG Advansure Malaria P.f./P.v. real-time QPCR^R kit, and the results were compared with those of microscopy. The detection limit of this kit was determined by serial dilution of Plasmodium-infected blood with normal blood (blood not infected with Plasmodium). Results: Among the 73 patients that were microscopically confirmed to have malaria (Plasmodium vivax infection, N=70, P. falciparum infection, N=3), 69 patients were diagnosed with P. vivax infection and 3 were diagnosed with P. falciparum infection by LG Advansure^TM Malaria P.f./P.v. realtime QPCR. Both the tests indicated absence of infection in the 100 healthy subjects. The detection limit of LG Advansure^TM Malaria P.f./P.v. real-time QPCR was 0.1 parasite/μL. Conclusions: LG Advansure^TM Malaria P.f./P.v. real-time QPCRis a very sensitive and specific technique and can be used as a confirmatory test for malaria.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.257-264
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• 2009

A neurotoxin, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) has been widely used to create animal model for Parkinson's disease (PD) due to its specific toxicity against dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Since DA signals modulate a broad spectrum of CNS physiology, one can expect profound alterations in neuroendocrine activities of both PD patients and 6-OHDA treated animals. Limited applications of 6-OHDA injection model, however, have been made on the studies of hypothalamuspituitary neuroendocrine circuits. The present study was performed to examine whether blockade of brain catecholamine (CA) biosynthesis with 6-OHDA can make any alteration in the transcriptional activities of hypothalamus-pituitary hormone genes in adult male rats. Three-month-old male rats (SD strain) were received 6-OHDA ($200{\mu}g$ in $10{\mu}\ell$ of saline/animal) by intracerebroventricular (icv) injection, and sacrificed after two weeks. To determine the mRNA levels of hypothalamuspituitary hormone genes, total RNAs were extracted and applied to the semi-quantitative RT-PCRs. The mRNA levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme for the catecholamine biosynthesis, were significantly lower than those from the control group (control:6-OHDA=1:0.72${\pm}$0.02AU, p<0.001), confirming the efficacy of 6-OHDA injection. The mRNA levels of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) in the hypothalami from 6-OHDA group were significantly lower than those from the control group (GnRH, control:6-OHDA=1:0.39${\pm}$0.03AU, p<0.001; CRH, control:6-OHDA=1:0.76${\pm}$0.07AU, p<0.01). There were significant decreases in the mRNA levels of common alpha subunit of glycoprotein homones (Cg$\alpha$), LH beta subunit (LH-$\beta$), and FSH beta subunit (FSH-$\beta$) in pituitaries from 6-OHDA group compared to control values (Cg$\alpha$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.81${\pm}$0.02AU, p<0.001; LH-$\beta$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.68${\pm}$0.04AU, p<0.001; FSH-$\beta$, control:6-OHDA=1:0.84${\pm}$0.05AU, p<0.001). Similarly, the level of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) transcripts from 6-OHDA group was significantly lower than that from the control group (control: 6-OHDA=1:0.86${\pm}$0.04AU, p<0.01). The present study demonstrated that centrally injected DA neurotoxin could downregulate the transcriptional activities of the two hypothalamus-pituitary neuroendocrine circuits, i.e., GnRH-gonadotropins and CRH-ACTH systems. These results suggested that hypothalamic CA input might affect on the activities of gonad and adrenal through modulation of hypothalamus-pituitary function, providing plausible explanation for frequent occurrence of sexual dysfunction and poor stress-response in PD patients.