ABSTRACT
Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of serum galactomannan (GM) in the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods We enrolled 60 COPD patients in the study, including 19 IPA and 41 non-IPA cases.We examined serum GM of the patients by ELISA, evaluate the value of serum GM test for the diagnosis of IPA in patients with COPD, and compared the GM values before and after treatment.Results With 0.5 as the positive cutoff value, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of serum GM were 57.9%, 95.3%, 84.6%, and 83.0%, respectively, with a high specificity and a low sensitivity.The 7 IPA cases showed a significantly decreased GM value after treatment as compared with the baseline (0.30±0.21 vs 1.48±1.37, P=0.004).Conclusion The serum GM test has a limited value in the diagnosis of IPA in patients with COPD, but dynamic monitoring of the changes of the serum GM value may help evaluate the patient's condition.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To express fusion protein of mouse thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and HIV-1 gp120BAL V1/V2 subdomain in 293F cell.Methods:Full length of the V1V2 sequence from BAL isolate was fused with the C-terminus of mouse thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and sub-cloned into pCEP-Pu vector to construct the eukaryotic expression plasmid-pCTV1V2BAL.The recombinant plasmid was confirmed by enzyme digestion and sequencing , then transfected into 293 F cells using PEI as a transfection reagent .The fusion protein was purified by metal chelate affinity chromatography and characterized by SDS -PAGE and Western blot . The epitopes of V1/V2 in fusion protein were identified by ELISA .Results:The SDS-PAGE and Western blot results showed that there were highly heterogeneous glycoprotein bands at the site between 35 kD and 55 kD, which reacted with anti-mTSLP rabbit polyclonal antibody and anti-His tag mouse monoclonal antibody .The ELISA analysis showed that antibodies to V 1/V2BAL existed in the sera of HIV-1 positive patients.Conclusion:The mTSLP-V1/V2 fusion protein was successfully expressed in 293F cells, which may be useful for HIV-1 vaccine research .