A comprehensive collection of cutting-edge molecular protocols for the laboratory diagnosis and study of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. The methods-each crafted by a leading expert for comprehensiveness and genuine laboratory utility-cover the major sexually transmitted pathogens, including Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Haemophilius ducreyl, Treponema pallidum, and herpes simplex. Additional molecular techniques are included for detecting the genital mycoplasmas, hepatitis B virus, HIV-1, human papillomavirus. Sexually Transmitted Disease Protocols provides a...

Many physiologically important receptors and enzymes are regulated by their endogenous ligands and inhibitors. Nature chose to utilize these p- tides as chemical switches since they can be efficiently synthesized and - graded in cells, thus providing an immediate response to a fast changing environment. Such properties, so critical in cell survival, make peptides less than ideal drug candidates. Other frequently desired properties in drug m- ecules include oral bioavailability, the ability to cross membranes, including the blood-brain barrier, and sufficient stability for administration 1-2...

The enormous advances in molecular biology that have been witnessed in . Not recent years have had major impacts on many areas of the biological sciences least of these has been in the field of clinical bacteriology and infectious disease . Molecular Bacteriology: Protocols and ClinicalApplications aims to provide the reader with an insight into the role that molecular methodology has to play in modern medical bacteriology. The introductory chapter ofMolecular Bacteriology: ProtocolsandCli- cal Applications offers a personal overview by a Consultant Medical Microbio- gist of the impact and...

The accurate and reliable diagnosis of transmissible diseases is the most powerful weapon available to ensure their control, and in some cases eradication. The detection of parasites in clinical cases, companion and farm animals, and in the environment is relatively easy since many of them are visible to the naked eye, and those that are not are readily detected by light microscopy. Fungal infections can similarly be determined. Bacteria are somewhat harder to detect. Although their presence can frequently be detected by light microscopy, differential diagnosis, beyond their gross morphology,...

Lectins have in the past been regarded by many scientists as curious proteins of uncertain structure and specificity that bind to carbohydrates of dubious significance themselves. All this is rapidly changing. The functional importance of glycosylation in cell-cell and cell-pathogen interactions, as well as intracellular events, has been recognized by the explosion of the science of glycobiology. This has been paralleled by the realization that lectins, once they have been well characterized, can be extremely useful tools for exam- ing structural changes in glycosylation and their functional...

The development of cancer is a slow process and it very often takes a number of years before a tumor becomes clinically evident. No current te- nique is sensitive and specific enough to detect tumors at their earliest stage, i. e., when the tumor is smaller than one billion cells. Consequently, the d- ease is usually diagnosed in an advanced state, very often when it is already beyond the reach of therapeutic strategies. This is the main stumbling block to the secondary prevention that would reduce cancer mortality. There is hope, however, because in the last decade we have witnessed an...

Herpes Simplex Virus Protocols comprises a wide range of experimental protocols that should be especially useful to new workers in herpes virology. Hopefully, it will also provide information for those with experience in the field, as well as those embarking on techniques that are new to them. Obviously the range of topics covered cannot be comprehensive, but we have tried to provide protocols dealing with those procedures that are most widely used; and we have selected expert authors accordingly. We have also tried to cover the range from the more biological in vivo maneuvers to purely...

Meningococcal septicemia and meningitis continue to be important causes of devastating illness, death, and long-term disability in both developed and resource-poor countries of the world. Few diseases have attracted as much public attention, or are as feared by parents and family members, as well as the medical staff who have to care for affected patients. The unexpected and unp- dictable occurrence of the disease in previously healthy children and young adults, its rapid progression, and the frequent occurrence of purpura fulminans with the resulting gangrene of limbs and digits and the...

International biobank collaborations allow for studies with large number of subjects where generalizability of findings across populations can be investigated, which means establishing quality criteria concerning the nature of the sample, conditions of sample storage, and the adequacy of available information is of vital importance. Methods in Biobanking brings together contributions from experts in the field in order to aid in the establishment of this much needed consistency. The volume discusses how to use existing collections of biological material to answer significant questions...

This latest addition to the Methods in Molecular Medicine series, Anti- ral Methods and Protocols, is opportune because there is an increasing int- est in discovering compounds that are effective against both chronic and acute viral infections. A number of the methods described in the volume are unp- lished and their inclusion indicates the speed at which this field is moving. This volume is not a review but each chapter contains methods validated by the experts who have spent time in developing the protocols. The hallmark of this series is the comprehensive way in which the me- ods are...