Abstract:
A simple, fast, selective and highly sensitive electrochemical method assay and disposable device for detection of viruses, bacteria, proteins, DNA, and/or organic/inorganic compounds. The sensor has a multi-layered construction, with each successive layer performing a different function. The design further allows for the packing of numerous microscopic electrode transducers onto the small footprint of a biochip device, allowing for a high-density array of sensors.
Abstract:
The present invention is directed to novel non-invasive diagnostic tools/compounds comprising a cyclic peptide wherein the compound binds to a MSH receptor to image and treat cancers, especially, melanoma, including metastatic melanoma in vivo. The present invention represents a clear advance in the art which presently relies on tissue biopsy for diagnoses of these cancers. The novel imaging probes are capable of detecting cancerous melanoma cells, as well as their metastatic spread in tissues. This represents a quantum step forward in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma, including metastatic melanoma using non-invasive molecular imaging techniques. The novel probes of the present invention will also be useful to initiate therapy for melanoma as well as monitor patients response to chemotherapy treatments and other interventions or therapies used in the treatment of melanoma/metastatic melanoma. Compounds according to the present invention may be used as diagnostic tools for a number of conditions and diseases states as well as therapeutic agents for treating such conditions and disease states.
Abstract:
Compounds disclosed which inhibit ABCBl transporter protein are useful for treating diseases in which ABCBl transporter protein mediates the disease state, including numerous cancers, including hematopoietic cancers, including various leukemias, especially T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia, as well as cancerous tumors, especially forms which exhibit multiple drug resistance. Pharmaceutical compositions which comprise an inhibitor of ABCBl transporter protein and at least one additional anticancer agent, optionally in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, additive or excipient are another aspect of the present invention. A flow cytometry based, high-throughput screening (HST) assay that quantifies ABCBl efflux is also disclosed. Methods of identifying inhibitors of ABCBl, ABCG2 and ABCCl transporter proteins are also disclosed.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to the use of isotopically labeled derivatives of isoniazid, ethionamide and related compounds as effective therapy for the treatment of mycobacterial diseases, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Abstract:
Viruses and other bioagents are of high medical and biodefense concern and their detection at concentrations well below the threshold necessary to cause health hazards continues to be a challenge with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and selectivity. Ideally, assays for accurate and real time detection of viral agents and other bioagents would not necessitate any pre-processing of the analyte, which would make them applicable for example to bodily fluids (blood, sputum) and man-made as well as naturally occurring bodies of water (pools, rivers). We describe herein a robust biosensor that combines the sensitivity of surface acoustic waves (SAW) generated at a frequency of 325 MHz with the specificity provided by antibodies and other ligands for the detection of viral agents. In preferred embodiments, a lithium tantalate based SAW transducer with silicon dioxide waveguide sensor platform featuring three test and one reference delay lines was used to adsorb antibodies directed against Coxsackie virus B4 or the negative-stranded category A bioagent Sin Nombre virus (SNV), a member of the genus Hantavirus, family Bunyaviridae, negative-stranded RNA viruses. Rapid detection (within seconds) of increasing concentrations of viral particles was linear over a range of order of magnitude for both viruses, although the sensor was approximately 50x104 -fold more sensitive for the detection of SNV. For both pathogens, the sensor's selectivity for its target was not compromised by the presence of confounding Herpes Simplex virus type 1. The biosensor was able to detect SNV at doses lower than the load of virus typically found in a human patient suffering from hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS). Further, in a proof-of-principle real world application, the SAW biosensor was capable of selectively detecting SNV agents in complex solutions, such as naturally occurring bodies of water (river, sewage effluent) without analyte pre-processing.
Abstract:
The invention provides tertiary structures) of cyclic nonapeptide ICAM-1 inhibitors and methods of using the tertiary structures tp identify additional ICAM-1 inhibitors, particularly non-peptide modulators. The invention also provides methods of treating ICAM1/LFA-1 mediated diseases comprising administ4ring a non-peptide ICAM-1 modulator of the invention to a patient in need thereof.
Abstract:
The present invention includes a magnetically susceptible polymer component, a method of making the same, and apparatuses and systems for mixing, separating or localizing a magnetically susceptible polymer compound in a reaction. The magnetically susceptible polymer component includes a polymer and a magnetically susceptible particle of a predetermined size, which yields a component having a much-improved magnetic reactivity due to the increase in magnetic material by mass percentage. The apparatuses and systems of the present invention employ controllable magnetic fields distributable in perpendicular directions in order to precisely control the orientation, position and relative motion of any magnetically susceptible components within a reaction vessel.
Abstract:
Exemplary embodiments provide compositions and devices for hydrophobic coatings, and methods for making them. The hydrophobic coating can be formed from a coating solution including, for example, organically modified silicates (ormosils) mixed with coupling agents. Specifically, a sol-gel solution can be formed including a plurality of alkoxy silane precursors that contains at least one glycidoxy alkoxy silane precursor. In an exemplary embodiment, the sol-gel solution can be a mixed sol-gel solution formed including a first solution mixed with a second solution. The first solution can include one or more alkoxy silane precursors, and the second solution can include at least one glycidoxy alkoxy silane precursor. A coupling agent can then be added and reacted with the (mixed) sol-gel solution forming the coating solution, which can be applied onto a substrate that needs to be protected from corrosion or from chemical and/or biological agents.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to peptide compounds which modulate the interaction of ICAM-1 and LFA-1, and in particular, function as inhibitors of the interaction of integrins, more particularly, LFA-I, and one or several distinct intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAMS), in particular ICAM-1, pharmaceutical compositions comprising effective amounts of these peptide compounds and methods for the treatment and/or prevention of related disease states and conditions which are mediated through ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions, for example, the interaction of cellular adhesion molecules with integrins and/or the emigration of leukocytes from blood into tissue.
Abstract:
A distance of flight (DOF) approach to mass spectroscopy in which the resolution among the various ion masses is accomplished in space rather than time. A separate detector is associated with each ion mass resolution element. The DOF mass spectrometer can serve as one element in a tandem arrangement, which has the capability to produce a full two-dimensional precursor/product spectrum for each bunch of ions extracted from the source. A "distance-of-flight" (DOF) mass analyzer, having an ion storage device (21) means for applying an ion extraction voltage pulse to said storage device (22, 23), a field free region, and detectors (29), is used in combination with time-of-flight (TOF) mass analysis for precursor and product dispersion. All the precursor ions can undergo a mass changing reaction simultaneously, while still retaining the essential information about the particular precursor m/z value from which each product m/z value emanated. Through the use of a two-dimensional detector, all the products ions from all the precursors can be detected for each batch of ions analyzed.