Anticuerpos antifosfatidilserina en pacientes con síndrome antifosfolipido primario y en individuos sanos

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of IgM, IgG and IgA anti-phosphatidylserine (aPS) antibodies in patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS) and in healthy controls; to analyze sensitivity, and specificity of aPS antibodies for the diagnosis of APS and finally to assess associations between aPS antibodies with specific APS manifestations. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 36 female PAPS patients and in 200 blood donors. IgM, IgG, and IgA antiphosphatidylserine (aPS) antibodies were tested in PAPS patients and controls using an in house technique and a commercial kit. PAPS patients were also tested for lupus anticoagulant (LAC), IgM and IgG anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies, and for anti-β2 glycoprotein I (anti-β2GPI) antibodies. Results: The prevalence of IgM, IgG, and IgA aPS antibodies in PAPS patients was as follows: 10.8-16.7%, 32.4-35.7%, and 16.1%, respectively. Although a relatively low sensitivity was found for aPS antibodies in PAPS, the specificity of IgM, IgG, and IgA aPS antibodies for PAPS was 94.7-98.9%, 95.3-96.3%, and 97.9%, respectively. All aPS isotypes were significantly associated with obstetric manifestations of APS. IgM aPS antibodies were associated with an increased risk of venous and arterial thrombosis. IgA aPS antibodies were associated with arterial thrombosis whereas IgG aPS antibodies were associated with an increased risk of venous thrombotic events. IgM and IgG aPS antibodies were frequently found in association with anti-β2GPI antibodies. Conclusions: The prevalence of aPS antibodies is low in PAPS but these antibodies are highly specific for PAPS and are associated with specific PAPS manifestations.Objetivo: Investigar la prevalencia de anticuerpos anti-fosfatidilserina (aFS) de tipo IgM, IgG e IgA en pacientes con síndrome antifosfolípido primario (SAFP) y en controles sanos; analizar la sensibilidad y la especificidad de los anticuerpos aFS para el diagnóstico de aFS y finalmente, evaluar las asociaciones entre los anticuerpos específicos aFS y las manifestaciones clínicas del SAF. Métodos: Estudio transversal de 36 pacientes mujeres con SAFP y 200 donantes de sangre. Se determinaron anticuerpos antifosfatidilserina de tipo IgM, IgG e IgA en pacientes y controles con SAFP utilizando una técnica propia y un kit comercial. A los pacientes com SAFP también se les determinó el anticoagulante lúpico (ACL), los anticuerpos anticardiolipina IgM e IgG (aCL), y los anticuerpos anti-β2 glucoproteína I (anti-β2GPI). Resultados: La prevalencia de los anticuerpos AFS IgM, IgG, IgA en pacientes con SAFP fue la siguiente: 10,8-16,7%, 32,4-35,7%, y 16,1%, respectivamente. Aunque se encontro una sensibilidad relativamente baja para los anticuerpos AFS en el SAFP, la especificidad de los anticuerpos AFS IgM, IgG, IgA para el SAFP fue 94,7-98,9%, 95,3-96,3% y 97,9%, respectivamente. Todos los isotipos de AFS se asociaron significativamente con las manifestaciones obstétricas. Los anticuerpos AFS IgM se asociaron con un riesgo aumentado de trombosis venosa y arterial. Los anticuerpos AFS IgA se asociaron con la trombosis arterial mientras que los anticuerpos AFS IgG se asociaron con un mayor riesgo de eventos trombóticos venosos. Los anticuerpos AFS IgM e IgG se encuentran con frecuencia em asociación con anticuerpos anti-β2GPI. Conclusiones: La prevalencia de anticuerpos AFS es baja en SAFS pero estos anticuerpos son altamente específicos para SAFP y se asocian con manifestaciones SAFP específicos

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes/carbon black/rPLA for high-performance conductive additive manufacturing filament and the simultaneous detection of acetaminophen and phenylephrine

The combination of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and carbon black (CB) is presented to produce a high-performance electrically conductive recycled additive manufacturing filament. The filament and subsequent additively manufactured electrodes were characterised by TGA, XPS, Raman, and SEM and showed excellent low-temperature flexibility. The MWCNT/CB filament exhibited an improved electrochemical performance compared to an identical in-house produced bespoke filament using only CB. A heterogeneous electrochemical rate constant, of 1.71 (± 0.19) × 10−3 cm s−1 was obtained, showing an almost six times improvement over the commonly used commercial conductive CB/PLA. The filament was successfully tested for the simultaneous determination of acetaminophen and phenylephrine, producing linear ranges of 5–60 and 5–200 μM, sensitivities of 0.05 μA μM−1 and 0.14 μA μM−1, and limits of detection of 0.04 μM and 0.38 μM, respectively. A print-at-home device is presented where a removable lid comprised of rPLA can be placed onto a drinking vessel and the working, counter, and reference components made from our bespoke MWCNT/CB filament. The print-at-home device was successfully used to determine both compounds within real pharmaceutical products, with recoveries between 87 and 120% over a range of three real samples. This work paves the way for fabricating new highly conductive filaments using a combination of carbon materials with different morphologies and physicochemical properties and their application to produce additively manufactured electrodes with greatly improved electrochemical performance

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Edible gold leaf as a viable modification method for screen-printed sensors

The demand for low-cost, efficient, selective, and sensitive analytical methods is increasing globally, making electroanalysis combined with screen-printed electrodes an appealing option. Gold, known for its excellent electrical conductivity and biocompatibility, improves the electrocatalytic activity of the sensors and reduces interference with other substances. Here, we propose the modification of disposable sensors with edible gold leaf, which is a cost-effective alternative to sputtering. The gold leaf was immobilized on the screen-printed electrode surface with chitosan. L-tyrosine, an amino acid, and an important biomarker for the diagnosis of various diseases was detected as a proof-of-concept. Using square-wave voltammetry for the determination of L-tyrosine, the disposable sensor modified with gold leaf showed a linear response in the range between 0.10 to 70 μmol L−1 with a limit of detection of 0.09 μmol L−1. Overall, the use of gold leaf to modify disposable electrochemical sensors for L-tyrosine detection represents a promising approach for electrochemical sensing

Development of New Simple Compositions of Silver Inks for the Preparation of Pseudo-Reference Electrodes

Silver materials are known to present excellent properties, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity as well as chemical stability. Silver-based inks have drawn a lot of attention for being compatible with various substrates, which can be used in the production uniform and stable pseudo-reference electrodes with low curing temperatures. Furthermore, the interest in the use of disposable electrodes has been increasing due to the low cost and the possibility of their use in point-of-care and point-of-need situations. Thus, in this work, two new inks were developed using Ag as conductive material and colorless polymers (nail polish (NP) and shellac (SL)), and applied to different substrates (screen-printed electrodes, acetate sheets, and 3D-printed electrodes) to verify the performance of the proposed inks. Measurements attained with open circuit potential (OCP) attested to the stability of the potential of the pseudo-reference proposed for 1 h. Analytical curves for β-estradiol were also obtained using the devices prepared with the proposed inks as pseudo-references electrodes, which presented satisfactory results concerning the potential stability (RSD < 2.6%). These inks are simple to prepare and present great alternatives for the development of pseudo-reference electrodes useful in the construction of disposable electrochemical systems