Biomedical subjects
P Molloy
Publications and source records attributed to P Molloy.
Separation and concentration of bacteria with immobilized antibody fragments.
New methods to quantitatively remove bacteria from food and water samples are required to meet modern safety standards. The recent development of techniques to make Fab/Fv/scFv fragments in bacteria has provided the opportunity to exploit antibodies as specialized chemicals for affinity removal technologies. Single-chain fragments against Pseudomonas aeruginosa have been expressed in Escherichia coli, purified via a fused poly-histidine tail and immobilized upon polystyrene beads. The resulting immunoaffinity columns have been shown to effectively remove greater than 90% of an applied 10 million bacteria after a single passage through the column. Column material in the absence of single-chain retained less than 10% of the bacteria. Pseudomonas were also removed from milk, mixed bacterial cultures and when present at low cell densities.
SSCP detection of N-ras promoter mutations in AML patients.
Activation of the N-ras gene via coding region mutations has been previously documented in 25% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Since overexpression of normal N-ras is also transforming in vitro, the N-ras promoter of AML patients was analyzed for the presence of promoter mutations that may affect expression of the N-ras gene. Single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) was used to analyze samples from 26 AML patients and 13 normal subjects. A novel polymorphism at position 390 within the N-ras promoter was observed in both AML patients and normal samples at an overall frequency of 26%. In addition, two of 26 patients had single-base substitutions within protein binding sites that altered the binding of transcription factors to the promoter. One patient had a T-->A mutation at position 520 within an AP-1 binding site; the other had an A-->G mutation at position 409 within a protein binding region adjacent to a Myb binding site. The data suggest that in addition to coding region mutations in the N-ras gene, mutations in the promoter region that could alter regulation of N-ras expression provide an alternative mechanism of involvement of N-ras in AML.
The Oklahoma-Pittsburgh experience with interferon alpha in the treatment of HCV disease.
Interferon alpha (IFN) is the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapy available for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. The ideal dose and frequency of IFN administration that produces the greatest number of patient responders with the least number of relapses following drug withdrawal remains unclear. METHODS. One hundred seventeen patients recruited over a five-year period with chronic hepatitis C were divided into four groups and treated with progressively larger doses. The rate of clinical responses defined as a loss of detectable hepatitis C virus-ribonucleic acid (HCV-RNA) in serum by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and normalization of the serum ALT (abnormal alanine aminotransferase) for each group was calculated. RESULTS. As the dose of IFN administration increased, the response rate defined by the absence of HCV-RNA in the patient's serum after six months of follow-up increased from 7.7% to 26.6%. If the end point utilized was HCV-RNA negativity after six months of treatment, the response rate varied from 19.2% to 30%. Using the less difficult end point of a normal ALT level, the response rates varied from 32.1% to 63.3% after six months of therapy and from 10.7% to 26.7% after six months of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS. This experience demonstrates that both the response rate at the end of therapy and after six months of follow-up improves with an increase in dose of IFN administered over a six-month period.
The relationship between risk factors for affective disorder and poststroke depression in hospitalised stroke patients.
The influence of psychiatric risk factors on the development of depression following stroke was examined in 88 patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation. In this sample, 34 patients (38%) had a diagnosis of major or minor depression. Older age and a personal or family history of affective or anxiety disorder were associated significantly with major depression. Minor depression was more common among males and those patients with greater physical disability. Severity of depressive symptoms was associated with a personal or family history of affective or anxiety disorder and higher pre-stroke personality neuroticism. We conclude that certain psychiatric risk factors for affective disorder are strongly associated with poststroke depression. The implications of these findings for anticipating and managing poststroke depression are discussed.
Collection of umbilical cord blood specimens at the time of delivery.
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