疾病及处理

One hallmark of HCV is its pronounced genetic plasticity, caused by error-prone RNA replication, which probably contributes to its remarkable ability to establish chronic infections. On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, HCV variants are classified into six genotypes (GTs), each co ...

Studies of HCV pathogenesis and antiviral research have been hampered by the lack of adequate cell-culture and small-animal models. The culturing of human primary hepatocytes would greatly facilitate the model development in HCV research. The availability of robust infectious vir ...

A major breakthrough in the field of HCV research was the development of a system that supports the production of infectious virus particles. The key to this achievement was the molecular cloning of a genotype 2a genome, designated JFH1, which replicates to exceptionally high levels and at the sa ...

Estimates of hepatitis C virus infection include 170 million people worldwide, who face increased risk of development of cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Standard of care therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin is effective in just half of patients, is ...

The magnitude and breadth of T-cell responses against HCV are associated with the outcome of HCV infection. Parameters of HCV-specific T-cell responses that are frequently assessed in clinical immunological studies include proliferation of T cells in response to HCV antigens, frequ ...

Flow cytometry has become an essential research tool because of the increase in the number of its {applications.} The development of an increasing number of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and fluorochromes, and of instruments capable of multicolor detection, allows the acquisition of a l ...

In the last decade, viral kinetic modeling has played an important role in the analysis of HCV RNA decay after the initiation of antiviral therapy. Models have provided a means of evaluating the antiviral effectiveness of therapy and of estimating parameters, such as the rate of virion clearance ...

Infectious HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) can be assembled by display of unmodified and functional HCV glycoproteins on retroviral and lentiviral core particles. HCVpp have been shown to mimic the early infection steps of parental HCV. The presence of a marker gene packaged within these HCV ...

The following describes noncommercial methods for the purification of genomic and plasmid DNA from S. epidermidis. These include both large-scale, high molecular weight and quick, small-scale chromosomal DNA extractions, and also a standard alkaline lysis method of plasmid prepa ...

The ability to genetically manipulate bacteria is essential to understanding gene/protein function in these organisms. While basic cloning has become routine in molecular biology, many still view the ability to make directed mutations as a daunting or intimidating task. To aid the stap ...

Phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) are multifunctional peptide toxins produced by many staphylococcal strains. PSMs have received much recent attention, owing to multiple reports underscoring their importance for staphylococcal pathogenesis. Members of the PSM family may be s ...

The “omics” era began with transcriptomics and this progressed into proteomics. While useful, these approaches provide only circumstantial information about carbon flow, metabolic status, redox poise, etc. To more directly address these metabolic concerns, researchers have tu ...

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a genotyping method that is well suited for studying the population genetics and evolution of Staphylococcus epidermidis. The central MLST database for S. epidermidis continues to grow, and new analysis methods for extracting historical inform ...

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is one of the older methods for the molecular characterization and comparison of microorganisms including bacteria. Nevertheless, PFGE continues to be recognized as the gold standard for molecular typing due to output spanning 90 % of the bacter ...

Biochemical assays for the phenotypic identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci in the clinical microbiology laboratory have been well described in previous publications (Becker and Von Eiff Manual of Clinical Microbiology, ASM Press, Washington, pp. 308–330, 20 ...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most frequently encountered member of the coagulase-negative staphylococci on human epithelial surfaces. It has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen, especially in infections of indwelling medical devices. The mechanisms that S. ep ...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most common cause of primary bacteremia and infections of indwelling medical devices. The ability to cause disease is linked to its natural niche on human skin and ability to attach and form biofilm on foreign bodies. This review focuses on the S. epidermidis c ...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is now recognized as the primary cause of nosocomial catheter-mediated infections. Bacteria may be introduced exogenously via contamination of the catheter hub or insertion site and endogenously from sepsis. The in vivo model described in this chapter ...

Animal models are valuable tools for investigating the in vivo pathogenesis of Staphylococcus epidermidis infections. Here, we present the procedure for generating a central nervous system catheter-associated infection in a mouse, to model the central nervous system shunt infec ...

Biofilms are adherent communities of bacteria contained within a complex matrix. Staphylococcal species are frequent etiological agents of device-associated biofilm infections in humans that are highly recalcitrant to antimicrobial therapy and alter host immune respons ...