ExRNA in Biofluids as Biomarkers for Brain Tumors

Patients with high-grade gliomas and glioblastomas (GBMs) have poor survival despite optimal surgical and drug therapy. Minimally invasive diagnostic biomarkers would enable early diagnosis and tumor-specific treatments for ‘personalized targeted’ therapy, and would create the basis for response tracking in patients with GBM. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from cerebrospinal fluid and blood contain glioma-specific molecules, including tumor-derived EV RNAs that are detectable in small copy numbers in these biofluids. EV RNA mutations or expression changes are also detectable, the analysis of which gives rise to ‘liquid biopsy’ tumor profiling.     

Isolation of pathogens other than Yersinia pestis during plague investigations.

From 1975 to 1978, 37 isolates of Pasteurella multocida, 1 of Salmonella enteriditis, and 5 of Francisella tularensis were recovered from 42 mammalian specimens and 1 flea pool submitted for examination for evidence of infection with Yersinia pestis. Most of the specimens were collected during investigations of either a human plague infection or a reported epizootic among rodent populations. All specimens were of species regularly or occasionally involved in plague or tularemia cycles in nature and most were collected in areas of known plague or tularemia activity.     

Identification, isolation, and characterization of the structural gene encoding the delta' subunit of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III holoenzyme.

The gene encoding the delta' subunit of DNA polymerase III holoenzyme, designated holB, was cloned by a strategy in which peptide sequence was used to derive a DNA hybridization probe. The gene maps to 24.95 centisomes of the chromosome. Sequencing of holB revealed a 1,002-bp open reading frame predicted to produce a 36,936-Da protein. The gene has a ribosome-binding site and promoter that are highly similar to the consensus sequences and is flanked by two potential open reading frames. Protein sequence analysis of delta' revealed a high degree of similarity to the dnaX gene products of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, including one stretch of 10 identical amino acid residues. A lesser degree of similarity to the gene 44 protein of bacteriophage T4 and the 40-kDa protein of the A1 complex (replication factor C) of HeLa cells was seen. The gene, when placed into a tac promoter-based expression plasmid, directed expression of two proteins of similar size. By immunodetection with anti-holoenzyme immunoglobulin G, both proteins are judged to be products of holB.