Mycoplasma is well recognized as one of the most prevalent and serious microbial contaminants of biologic manufacturing processes. Conventional methods for mycoplasma testing, direct culture method and indirect indicator cell culture method, are lengthy, costly and less sensitive to noncultivable species. In this report, we describe a new TaqMan probe-based real-time PCR method for rapid and quantitative detection of mycoplasma contamination during manufacture of biologics. Universal mycoplasma primers were used for mycoplasma PCR and mycoplasma DNA was quantified by use of a specific TaqMan probe. Specificity, sensitivity, and robustness of the real-time PCR method was validated according to the European Pharmacopoeia. The validation results met required criteria to justify its use as a replacement for the culture method. The established real-time PCR assay was successfully applied to the detection of mycoplasma from human keratinocyte and mesenchymal stem cell as well as Vero cell lines artificially infected with mycoplasma. The overall results indicated that this rapid, specific, sensitive, and robust assay can be reliably used for quantitative detection of mycoplasma contamination during manufacture of biologics.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The half-metallicity and magnetism for compounds of the N (2-0.5n) O 0.5n KCa (n = 0~4), which was based on the d 0 Heusler halfmetals of N 2 KCa and O 2 KCa, were investigated by means of first-principles band calculation method. From the calculated total magnetic moments and the density of states, we found that these three compounds have the half-metallicity. The magnetic moments of the N and O atoms in these compounds were considerably increased compared to those of pure N 2 KCa and O 2 KCa. The K atoms have a large negative magnetic moments. The relationship between the value of magnetic moments for each atom and density of states are discussed.