Epitopic Profiling of Antibody Response against Neurotoxins from the Black Mamba (<i>Dendroaspis polylepis</i>)

The black mamba (Dendroaspis Polylepis) is among the most dangerous snakes in the world, with a venom dominated by three-finger toxins and dendrotoxins. Among the three-finger toxins, the α-neurotoxins (α-NT) are the most important, and these are conserved between snake species. Cross-reactivity between threefinger toxins is known to occur, and understanding this phenomenon in depth may help guide future design of antivenoms to obtain optimal specificity against medically important toxins from different snake species. Using a bioinformatic approach, we investigated the cross-reactivity be- tween three-finger toxins for a rabbit antiserum raised against short neuro- toxin 1 from D. polylepis (SN1-DP).<br/

Pre-treatment evaluation of basal cell carcinoma for photodynamic therapy: comparative measurement of tumour thickness in punch biopsy and excision specimens

Tumour thickness affects the outcome of photodynamic therapy in basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether punch biopsy provides reliable information on BCC tumour thickness, by comparing corresponding measurements in biopsy and excision specimens for 48 lesions in 43 patients. BCC tumours were between 0.2 and 6.1 mm thick. The mean depth of the excisions were 0.14 mm greater than that of the biopsies. Bland-Altman 95% limits of agreement were (–1.3, 1.6) mm, but the difference between measurements increased with tumour thickness. A punch biopsy tumour thickness of 1.0 mm yielded an upper 95% predicted limit for excision depth within 2.0 mm. In conclusion, there was reasonable overall agreement between corresponding measurements. A biopsy thickness of 1.0 mm suggests that the tumour will most likely be within the current accepted limits for photodynamic therapy. With increasing tumour thickness, however, individual tumour measurements may differ considerably