Assessing the DNA methylation status of single cells with the comet assay

The comet assay (single cell gel electrophoresis) is a cost-effective, sensitive, and simple technique that is traditionally used for analyzing and quantifying DNA damage in individual cells. The aim of this study was to determine whether the comet assay could be modified to detect changes in the levels of DNA methylation in single cells. We used the difference in methylation sensitivity of the isoschizomeric restriction endonucleases HpaII and MspI to demonstrate the feasibility of the comet assay to measure the global DNA methylation level of individual cells. The results were verified with the well-established cytosine extension assay. We were able to show variations in DNA methylation after treatment of cultured cells with 5-azacytidine and succinylacetone, an accumulating metabolite in human tyrosinemia type I.     

QuantiFERON-TB GOLD ELISA assay for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens in blood specimens of HIV-positive patients in a high-burden country

Tuberculosis is a life-threatening infection worldwide. Despite improvements in therapy, it results in 2 million deaths and 9 million new cases annually. This study evaluated the use of the QuantiFERON-TB GOLD enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a high HIV/TB burden setting in an ARV clinic at the Tshwane District Hospital, South Africa. The sensitivity and specificity of the QF assay in the clinic were 30% (9/30) and 63% (19/30), respectively, when compared with the gold standard culture results. Analysis also suggested that the sensitivity of the QuantiFERON assay is determined by a limiting patient CD4 value between 150 and 200.     

Detection of blaSHV, blaTEM and blaCTX-M antibiotic resistance genes in randomly selected bacterial pathogens from the Steve Biko Academic Hospital

Extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) are considered to be one of the most important antibiotic resistance mechanisms. This study reported the ESBL-producing genes in 53 randomly selected clinical bacterial isolates from the Steve Biko Academic Hospital. The presence of the bla _SHV, bla _TEM and bla _CTX-M genes was determined, and the overall prevalence of these genes detected in this study was 87% (46/53) in comparison with the literature; these results were higher when compared with 33% for Escherichia coli in Europe and 0.8% in Denmark for similar pathogens. These research findings indicated that it is crucial to routinely monitor the prevalence of these resistance genes.