Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease

Background: Experimental and clinical data suggest that reducing inflammation without affecting lipid levels may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet, the inflammatory hypothesis of atherothrombosis has remained unproved. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of canakinumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1β, involving 10,061 patients with previous myocardial infarction and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2 mg or more per liter. The trial compared three doses of canakinumab (50 mg, 150 mg, and 300 mg, administered subcutaneously every 3 months) with placebo. The primary efficacy end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or cardiovascular death. RESULTS: At 48 months, the median reduction from baseline in the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level was 26 percentage points greater in the group that received the 50-mg dose of canakinumab, 37 percentage points greater in the 150-mg group, and 41 percentage points greater in the 300-mg group than in the placebo group. Canakinumab did not reduce lipid levels from baseline. At a median follow-up of 3.7 years, the incidence rate for the primary end point was 4.50 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group, 4.11 events per 100 person-years in the 50-mg group, 3.86 events per 100 person-years in the 150-mg group, and 3.90 events per 100 person-years in the 300-mg group. The hazard ratios as compared with placebo were as follows: in the 50-mg group, 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.07; P = 0.30); in the 150-mg group, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74 to 0.98; P = 0.021); and in the 300-mg group, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.99; P = 0.031). The 150-mg dose, but not the other doses, met the prespecified multiplicity-adjusted threshold for statistical significance for the primary end point and the secondary end point that additionally included hospitalization for unstable angina that led to urgent revascularization (hazard ratio vs. placebo, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.95; P = 0.005). Canakinumab was associated with a higher incidence of fatal infection than was placebo. There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio for all canakinumab doses vs. placebo, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.06; P = 0.31). Conclusions: Antiinflammatory therapy targeting the interleukin-1β innate immunity pathway with canakinumab at a dose of 150 mg every 3 months led to a significantly lower rate of recurrent cardiovascular events than placebo, independent of lipid-level lowering. (Funded by Novartis; CANTOS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01327846.

Potencijalna upotreba izotopa važnih za okoliš u ispitivanju migracije onečišćujućih tvari

This article presents the use of natural abundance stable isotope (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine) analysis data as a tool for providing important information about the origin of contaminants, the contribution of different sources to a multi-source plume, characterisation of their complex transport (rate and mechanisms) and for evaluating the success of contaminated site remediation. Isotopic signatures of contaminants are useful tracers of their sources, while isotopic fractionation can be used to quantitatively assess the progress of an environmental process such as biodegradation. This new isotopic approach is reliable and can offer more information than traditional techniques in pollutant migration studies, particularly after waste disposal. During biological degradation of any organic compound, molecules containing lighter isotopes are degraded, and the portion of heavier isotopes in the substrate is increased, identifying specific microbial roles in biogeochemical cycling. Since isotopic fractionation is proportional to degradation, depending on the type of contamination, a microbial degradation of 50 % to 99 % of the initial concentration can be quantified using isotope ratio measurements.Cilj ovog rada je da se prikaže korištenje podataka analize prirodne obilnosti stabilnih izotopa (vodika, ugljika, dušika, kisika i klora) kao alata za dobivanje važnih informacija o porijeklu onečišćujućih tvari, doprinosu različitih multikomponentnih onečišćivača, karakterizaciji njihova kompleksnog transporta (brzine i mehanizma) i praćenja uspjeha remedijacije onečišćenih mjesta. Izotopski sadržaji onečišćujućih tvari koriste se kao traseri za određivanje njihovih izvora, dok se izotopsko frakcioniranje može iskoristiti za kvantitativnu procjenu toka procesa kao što je biodegradacija. Takav nov izotopski pristup je pouzdan i nudi više informacija od tradicionalnih tehnika kontrole putovanja onečišćivala, napose nakon odlaganja opasnog otpada na zemljištu. Za vrijeme biodegradacije nekog organskog spoje molekule koje sadržavaju lake izotope lakše se degradiraju, a dio težih izotopa u supstratu se povećava, što upućuje na mikrobiološku ulogu u biokemijskom ciklusu. Kako je izotopsko frakcioniranje proporcionalno degradaciji zavisno od tipa onečišćenja, korištenjem podataka mjerenja izotopskih odnosa može se procijeniti mikrobiološka degradacija od 50 % do 99 % od početne koncentracije

A Peak Finding Algorithm to Identify Double Peaks in Signal Traces of A Reaction Microscope For Measurements of Sequential Two-Photon Double-Ionization of Argon at the Free Electron Laser Hamburg

A new peak finding software based on a curve sketching algorithm to identify narrow double peak structure in the signal trace of a reaction microscope was implemented. In a testing phase, the peak finding software with the old CFD algorithm and the new CuSket algorithm is processed on measurement data. In a quantitative comparison the result from the peak finding software with a reference value, for CFD and CuSket taken respectively, leads to the resolutions CFD = 2 ns and CuSket = 0.7 ns. The testing phase results in a nearly three times ( CFD CuSket = 2.86) better resolution of CuSket compared to CFD

MS- und MS/MS-Untersuchungen zur massenspektrometrischen Konfigurations-Bestimmung an Peracetylierten Sacchariden

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: DW 5216 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Isotope ratio monitoring gas chromatography / mass spectrometry of D/H by high temperature conversion isotope ratio mass spectrometry

Of all the elements, hydrogen has the largest naturally occurring variations in the ratio of its stable isotopes (D/H). It is for this reason that there has been a strong desire to add hydrogen to the list of elements amenable to isotope ratio monitoring gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (irm-GC/MS), In irm-GC/MS the sample is entrained in helium as the carrier gas, which is also ionized and separated in the isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS), Because of the low abundance of deuterium in nature, precise and accurate on-line monitoring of D/H ratios with an IRMS requires that low energy helium ions be kept out of the m/z 3 collector, which requires the use of an energy filter. A clean mass 3 (HD+.) signal which is independent of a large helium load in the electron impact ion source is essential in order to reach the sensitivity required for D/H analysis of capillary GC peaks. A new IRMS system, the DELTA(plus)XL(TM), has been designed for high precision, high accuracy measurements of transient signals of hydrogen gas. It incorporates a retardation lens integrated into the m/z 3 Faraday cup collector. Following GC separation, the hydrogen bound in organic compounds must be quantitatively converted into H-2 gas prior to analysis in the IRMS, Quantitative conversion is achieved by high temperature conversion (TC) at temperatures >1400 degrees C, Measurements of D/H ratios of individual organic compounds in complicated natural mixtures can now be made to a precision of 2 parts per thousand (delta notation) or, better, with typical sample amounts of similar to 200 ng per compound. Initial applications have focused on compounds of interest to petroleum research (biomarkers and natural gas components), food and flavor control (vanillin and ethanol), and metabolic studies (fatty acids and steroids). Copyright (C) 1999 John Whey & Sons, Ltd. [References: 22

New developments in High-resolution Gas Source Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometers

Gas source isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is one of the main tools for the study of the isotopic compositions of light elements, extended in the last 10 years to the measurements of molecules bearing several rare isotopes (e.g., clumped isotopes of CO2) as well as position-specific isotopic substitutions in a few choice analytes (e.g., in N2O). Measuring those low-abundance species creates several technical challenges, with the main one being the presence of numerous isobaric interferences. Those can come either from contaminants (background gases present in the source of the instrument or impurities introduced with the analyte), or unwanted beams created by the analyte itself during the ionization process (for example adducts and fragments). In order to avoid those isobaric species, new high-resolution, double-focusing IRMS have been developed. We present here the capabilities of the production series version of the ThermoFisher Scientific 253 Ultra, which was installed at SUERC in July 2015. The instrument is capable of reaching high mass resolving power (above 40,000) and is similar in design to the Caltech 253 Ultra prototype. The collector array has 9 detector positions, 8 of which are movable. Faraday cups at each detector can be linked to amplifiers with gains ranging from 3.108 to 1012 Ohm (and 1013 Ohm amplifiers being currently developped). There are also 4 ion counters, one of which located behind a retardation lens (RPQ) to limit background noise and improve abundance sensitivity. Additionally, one of the Faraday cup in the new instrument has a very narrow entrance slit, allowing high mass resolving power and high resolution, with a complete separation of the ion beams instead of complex peak shapes corresponding to overlapping ion beams. This will potentially remove the need for adduct lines or peak stripping schemes for analytes like CH4