This report demonstrates a straightforward, robust, multiplexed and point-of-care microcapillary-based loop-mediated isothermal amplification (cLAMP) for assaying nucleic acids. This assay integrates capillaries (glass or plastic) to introduce and house sample/reagents, segments of water droplets to prevent contamination, pocket warmers to provide heat, and a hand-held flashlight for a visual readout of the fluorescent signal. The cLAMP system allows the simultaneous detection of two RNA targets of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from multiple plasma samples, and achieves a high sensitivity of two copies of standard plasmid. As few nucleic acid detection methods can be wholly independent of external power supply and equipment, our cLAMP holds great promise for point-of-care applications in resource-poor settings.

In order to inhibit pathogenic complications and to enhance animal and poultry growth, antibiotics have been extensively used for many years. Antibiotics applications not only affect target pathogens but also intestinal beneficially microbes, inducing long-lasting changes in intestinal microbiota associated with diseases. The application of antibiotics also has many other side effects like, intestinal barrier dysfunction, antibiotics residues in foodstuffs, nephropathy, allergy, bone marrow toxicity, mutagenicity, reproductive disorders, hepatotoxicity carcinogenicity, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which greatly compromise the efficacy of antibiotics. Thus, the development of new antibiotics is necessary, while the search for antibiotic alternatives continues. Probiotics are considered the ideal antibiotic substitute; in recent years, probiotic research concerning their application during pathogenic infections in humans, aquaculture, poultry, and livestock industry, with emphasis on modulating the immune system of the host, has been attracting considerable interest. Hence, the adverse effects of antibiotics and remedial effects of probiotics during infectious diseases have become central points of focus among researchers. Probiotics are live microorganisms, and when given in adequate quantities, confer good health effects to the host through different mechanisms. Among them, the regulation of host immune response during pathogenic infections is one of the most important mechanisms. A number of studies have investigated different aspects of probiotics. In this review, we mainly summarize recent discoveries and discuss two important aspects: (1) the application of probiotics during pathogenic infections; and (2) their modulatory effects on the immune response of the host during infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently discovered viral disease, characterized by fever, cough, acute fibrinous pneumonia and high infectivity. Specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens were immunized with inactivated SARS coronavirus and their eggs were harvested at regular intervals. Yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) was extracted using the water dilution method, followed by further purification on a Sephadex G-75 column. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Western blot and neutralization test results showed that the IgY obtained was of a high purity and had a strong reactive activity with a neutralization titer of 1:640. Lyophilization and stability tests showed that lyophilized anti-SARS coronavirus IgY had promising physical properties, with no significant reduction in reactive activity and good thermal stability. All these data suggest that the anti-SARS coronavirus IgY could be a new useful biological product for specific antiviral therapy against SARS.