Abstract: Fiducial marker compositions comprising fluorescent nanodiamonds and methods of making and using the fiducial marker compositions are disclosed. The fiducial marker composition comprises a substrate, and a fluorescent nanodiamond immobilized on a surface of the substrate, wherein the substrate and immobilized fluorescent nanodiamond are optionally top coated with an inert top coating. The fiducial marker compositions are used in imaging methods to correct for drift and other alignment instabilities, and are particularly useful in super-resolution imaging.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a small 7 amino-acid peptide, corresponding to the C terminus of RRM2 of the human La protein that binds to the IRES element of hepatitis C virus RNA and its derivatives. This disclosure demonstrates that this 7-mer interacts with the HCV IRES element both in vitro and in vivo and can compete against cellular La protein in binding to the HCV RNA. It is also shown here that this 7-mer peptide is able to inhibit HCV-IRES mediated translation in vivo which, in turn, leads to decreased viral replication.