The application provides new and improved methods for diagnosing BAM.

A method for determining cleavage of a VAMP by a clostridial neurotoxin in a cell that has been contacted with the clostridial neurotoxin under conditions suitable for clostridial neurotoxin activity, the method comprising contacting the cytoplasmic content of the cell with an antibody that binds to a resulting C-terminal product of such cleavage under suitable conditions in vitro or ex vivo and detecting the binding of the antibody to the C-terminal cleavage product. The antibody may, for example, be capable of binding an antigenic polypeptide consisting of 10 to 65 amino acid residues and comprising an epitope comprising an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to an amino acid sequence of at least 8 amino acid residues that is immediately C-terminal to a clostridial neurotoxin cleavage site in the VAMP.

The present disclosure provides antibodies that specifically bind to botulinum neurotoxins (e.g., BoNT/A, BoNT/B, BoNT/C, BoNT/D, BoNT/E, BoNT/F, BoNT/G, etc.) and the epitopes bound by those antibodies. The antibodies and derivatives thereof that specifically bind to the neutralizing epitopes provided herein can be used to neutralize botulinum neurotoxin and are therefore also useful in the treatment of botulism.

Disclosed are methods of diagnosis of a pathogen-associated disease. These methods comprise: providing a biological sample from a human subject; determining presence, absence and/or quantity of a bacterial pathogen, a viral pathogen, or a combination thereof, by a pathogen culture, a serum antibody detection test, a pathogen antigen detection test, a pathogen DNA and/or RNA detection test, or a combination thereof; determining in the sample, expression levels of at least one endogenous gene in which aberrant expression levels are associated with infection with a pathogen, by a microarray hybridization assay, RNA-seq assay, polymerase chain reaction assay, a LAMP assay, a ligase chain reaction assay, a Southern, Northern, or Western blot assay, an ELISA or a combination thereof. The subject can be diagnosed with the disease if the subject comprises the pathogen and an aberrant level of expression of an endogenous gene.

Methods for diagnosis of bacterial and viral infections are disclosed. In particular, the invention relates to the use of biomarkers that can determine whether a patient with acute inflammation has a bacterial or viral infection.

Methods and apparatus for rapid, culture and/or label free pathogen detection. The methods utilize optical spectroscopy techniques to identify and/or characterize pathogens in a sample via the detection of unique properties and/or analytes that are specific to particular pathogens.

A polymer nanoparticle includes a polymer having repeating units of formula (I) wherein X, L.sup.1, and R.sup.1 are as defined herein. Methods of preparing the polymer nanoparticles and compositions comprising the nanoparticles are also disclosed. The polymers nanoparticles described herein are particularly useful for the treatment of bacterial biofilms.

Novel chimeric proteins may be used to inhibit transcriptional A activities that are mediated by transcription factor interactions with P-TEFb. The chimeras contain elements that recruit the target transcription factor, maintain CDK9 in an inactive state, and competitively inhibit P-TEFb binding to the transcription factor. The chimeras may be configured for inhibition of HIV Tat mediated transcription and thus provide a novel means of preventing reactivation of integrated HIV, providing a new tool for emerging “block and lock” HIV cure strategies.

The present disclosure provides methods and lateral flow devices for detecting a plurality of target analytes in a liquid sample. In some implementations, the disclosed lateral flow device comprises a housing unit, a capillary flow bed, a sample-receiving zone, a buffer-receiving zone, and a capture zone. The device is configured to control the flow of the sample and reagent buffer in a sequential manner with minimal mixing. In some implementations, the disclosed method is capable of detecting a plurality of target analytes in an assay by applying the binding agents and the signaling agents in separate or sequential steps.

Described is an assay for diagnosing an infection such as peritonitis in a subject. The assay includes a binding molecule, such as an antibody that specifically binds to an inflammatory marker in a sample from the subject, and a second binding molecule that binds to a marker indicative of a pathogen in the sample. For diagnosing peritonitis in a subject, the pathogen will be at least one bacterium and/or fungus. Typically, the assay will be incorporated into a lateral flow device and may include a binding molecule that specifically binds to an antigen indicative of the presence of a specific pathogen species. The described assay(s) may further include filter(s), enriching antigen(s), and buffer(s). Also described are methods of diagnosing and treating peritonitis in a subject who is a peritoneal dialysis patient that include utilizing the herein described assay(s) or assay kit(s) to analyze the subject's peritoneal dialysis effluent.