Spectrophotometric analysis of thrombolytic activity: SATA assay

Introduction: Measurement of thrombolytic activity i.e. clot lysis is crucial for research and development of novel thrombolytics. It is also a key factor in assessment of the effectiveness of conventionally used thrombolytic agents in the clinic, which are the choice effective therapies for myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. Previous methods used for the assessment of thrombolytic activity are often associated with some drawbacks such as being costly, time-consuming, complication and low accuracy. Here, we introduce a simple, economic, relatively accurate and fast method of spectrophotometric analysis of thrombolytic activity (SATA) assay, standardized by tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which can quantitatively measure in vitro thrombolytic activity. Methods: Blood clots were formed, uniformly, by mixing citrated whole blood with partial thromboplastin time (PTT) reagent, together with calcium chloride. Then, designated concentrations of tPA were added to the samples, and the released red blood cells from each clot were quantified using spectrophotometry (λmax= 405 nm) as an indicator of thrombolytic activity. The accuracy of the method was tested by assessment of dose-responsibility against R2 value obtained by linear equation and measurement of limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ). The SATA assay was validated in comparison with some currently used techniques. Results: A linear relationship was obtained between different concentrations of tPA versus the spectrophotometric absorbance of the related dilutions of lysed clots, at λmax = 405 nm. Calculated R2 values were greater than 0.9; with LOD of 0.90 μg/mL of tPA (436.50IU) and LOQ of 2.99 μg/mL of tPA (1450.15IU). Conclusions: Conclusively, the SATA assay is a very simple quantitative method with repeatable and reproducible results for estimating the potency of an unknown thrombolytic agent, and calculating the activity as delicate as 1 μg/mL of tPA (485 IU/mL of thrombolytic dose). © 2018 The Author(s)

How to make inhabitants of Nyon walk more

Nowadays, Mobility becomes more and more important in a city long run development. The traffic jams created by the cars associated to the increase in the population is a challenging problem for every city. The challenges concern several areas, energy, pollution and security. Among them mobility plays a key roll, it connects everything and implies several actors. If a city would like to grow, attract companies and satisfy their inhabitants, it must offer appropriate mobility services. Health is also a major topic, overweight people are increasing seriously and the population is getting older and older and that will bring new challenges for the mobility. It’s important to focus on the people’s health and pedestrian mobility is a good weapon against it. Walking is the best way to get people moving, it maintains our body fit, it doesn’t make any noise and is pollution free. Unfortunately decades of transportation improvements, tends to remove people’s habit to walk, since the Human is lazy. Nyon is growing, since a few years several International companies started to come to Nyon and the construction of a new neighbourhood just started. In order to keep a nice living environment and a good quality life, the city needs to manage the future mobility services intelligently. The city is already a victim of the amount of cars going through the centre, causing important traffic jams. This traffic problem forces the city to re design all the bus lines in order to maintain an efficient service. Around the world several companies and cities have already started the “fight” for mobility. Some good practices and efficient policies show that everybody benefits from getting active. Some good examples for improving mobility are shown in the literature. This paper provides a study of the walking practices in Nyon. Two surveys were conducted first a qualitative one and second a quantitative one. The objective was to grab the inhabitant’s feelings about the mobility, especially the pedestrian one. With this data we show some topics and areas to focus on. For example, the study shows that the people living in Nyon are missing some pedestrian streets and parks. They would like to walk in a pedestrian friendly environment with adequate infrastructures. Consequently without rebuilding the entire city we gave the city of Nyon a recommendation to push people to walk more and to create a friendly walking environment. This recommendation implies most of the time, the participation of the inhabitants to break their bad habits and to get involvement in a long term

Enzyme replacement therapies: What is the best option?

Despite many beneficial outcomes of the conventional enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), several limitations such as the high-cost of the treatment and various inadvertent side effects including the occurrence of an immunological response against the infused enzyme and development of resistance to enzymes persist. These issues may limit the desired therapeutic outcomes of a majority of the lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). Furthermore, the biodistribution of the recombinant enzymes into the target cells within the central nervous system (CNS), bone, cartilage, cornea, and heart still remain unresolved. All these shortcomings necessitate the development of more effective diagnosis and treatment modalities against LSDs. Taken all, maximizing the therapeutic response with minimal undesired side effects might be attainable by the development of targeted enzyme delivery systems (EDSs) as a promising alternative to the LSDs treatments, including different types of mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs ) as well as Fabry, Krabbe, Gaucher and Pompe diseases