Accurate, Noninvasive Detection of Helicobacter pylori DNA from Stool Samples: Potential Usefulness for Monitoring Treatment

A novel DNA assay demonstrating sensitive and accurate detection of Helicobacter pylori from stool samples is reported. Moreover, in three individuals tested for therapeutic response, the assay showed the disappearance of H. pylori DNA during treatment. Thus, this noninvasive molecular biology-based assay has the potential to be a powerful diagnostic tool given its ability to specifically identify H. pylori DNA

Sortilin associates with Trk receptors to enhance anterograde transport and neurotrophin signaling

Binding of target-derived neurotrophins to Trk receptors at nerve terminals are required to stimulate neuronal survival, differentiation, innervation and synaptic plasticity. The distance between the soma and nerve terminal is tremendous, making efficient anterograde Trk transport critical for their synaptic translocation and signaling. The mechanism responsible for this trafficking remains poorly understood. Here we show that the sorting receptor sortilin interacts with TrkA, -B, and –C and enables their anterograde axonal transport, thereby enhancing neurotrophin signaling. Cultured DRG neurons lacking sortilin exhibit blunted MAPK signaling and reduced neurite outgrowth upon stimulation with NGF. Moreover, deficiency for sortilin considerably aggravates TrkA, -B- and –C phenotypes present in p75(NTR) knockouts, and results in increased embryonic lethality and sympathetic neuropathy in mice heterozygous for TrkA. Our findings demonstrate a novel and unexpected role for sortilin as an anterograde trafficking receptor for Trk and a positive modulator of neurotrophin-induced neuronal survival