Rapid enantiomeric separation of polychlorinated biphenyls by electrokinetic chromatography using mixtures of neutral and charged cyclodextrin derivatives

Electrokinetic chromatography with cyclodextrin derivatives (CD-EKC) was used to achieve the rapid enantiomeric\ud separation of chiral polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Thirteen of the 19 chiral PCBs stable at room temperature were individually separated into their two enantiomers by using 2-morpholinoethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer (pH 6.5) containing carboxymethylated g-cyclodextrin (CM-g-CD) as pseudostationary phase mixed with b-cyclodextrin (b-CD) or permethylated b-cyclodextrin (PM-b-CD). Urea was also added to increase the solubility of PCBs and cyclodextrins in the aqueous separation buffer. Several experimental parameters such as the nature, concentration, and pH of the buffer, nature and concentration of the cyclodextrin derivatives used, and the addition of different additives were studied in order to improve the enantiomeric separation. In addition, the effect of some instrumental parameters such as separation temperature and applied voltage was also investigated. PCBs were enantiomerically separated in less than 12 min by using a 50 mM MES buffer (pH 6.5) containing 20 mM CM-g-CD, 10 mM b-CD or 20 mM PM-b-CD, and 2 M urea at a temperature of\ud 458C and an applied voltage of 20 kV

Evaluation of the Dacos 3.0 analyser

The selective multitest Coulter Dacos 3.0 analyser was evaluated according to the guidelines of the Comisión de Instrumentación de la Sociedad Española de Química Clínica and of the European Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards

Evaluation of the Hitachi 717 analyser

The selective multitest Boehringer Mannheim Hitachi 717 analyser was evaluated according to the guidelines of the Comisión de Instrumentación de la Sociedad Española de Química Clinica and the European Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. The evaluation was performed in two steps: examination of the analytical units and evaluation in routine operation

Application of biological variation - a review

Ovaj rad sadrži opsežan pregled sastavnica biološke varijacije (BV), tj. intraindividualne (nasumična fluktuacija analita oko osnovne vrijednosti svakog pojedinca) i interindividualne (ukupna varijacija od osnovnih vrijednosti različitih osoba) varijacije, zatim ukratko objašnjava procjenu veličine intraindividualne i interindividualne BV u zdravih i oboljelih ispitanika, podrobno obrađuje osam složenijih primjena procjena BV, te govori o zanimljivim detaljima koji izazivaju najviše rasprava. Cilj rada je raspraviti kako pomoću današnje tehnologije doći do specifikacija kvalitete dobivenih na temelju BV u zdravih pojedinaca te u kojim se slučajevima koristiti podacima od oboljelih ispitanika. Konačno, u radu se promiče daljnji razvoj primjene BV, poput upozoravanja liječnika o promjenama u bolesnikovu stanju.This paper introduces an extensive revision of the types of components of biological variation (BV), i.e. intraindividual (random fluctuation of analytes around the setting point of each individual) and interindividual (overall variation from the different person\u27s setting point), briefly explains estimation of the magnitude of within- and between subject BV in healthy and non-healthy subjects, details the eight common applications of BV estimates and discusses the most debated points of interests. The aim is to discuss how quality specifications derived from BV determined in healthy individuals are attainable with current technology and in what cases data from non-healthy subjects should be used. Finally, the paper promotes further development of BV application, such as notifying doctors about changes in patient status

Application of biological variation - a review

Ovaj rad sadrži opsežan pregled sastavnica biološke varijacije (BV), tj. intraindividualne (nasumična fluktuacija analita oko osnovne vrijednosti svakog pojedinca) i interindividualne (ukupna varijacija od osnovnih vrijednosti različitih osoba) varijacije, zatim ukratko objašnjava procjenu veličine intraindividualne i interindividualne BV u zdravih i oboljelih ispitanika, podrobno obrađuje osam složenijih primjena procjena BV, te govori o zanimljivim detaljima koji izazivaju najviše rasprava. Cilj rada je raspraviti kako pomoću današnje tehnologije doći do specifikacija kvalitete dobivenih na temelju BV u zdravih pojedinaca te u kojim se slučajevima koristiti podacima od oboljelih ispitanika. Konačno, u radu se promiče daljnji razvoj primjene BV, poput upozoravanja liječnika o promjenama u bolesnikovu stanju.This paper introduces an extensive revision of the types of components of biological variation (BV), i.e. intraindividual (random fluctuation of analytes around the setting point of each individual) and interindividual (overall variation from the different person\u27s setting point), briefly explains estimation of the magnitude of within- and between subject BV in healthy and non-healthy subjects, details the eight common applications of BV estimates and discusses the most debated points of interests. The aim is to discuss how quality specifications derived from BV determined in healthy individuals are attainable with current technology and in what cases data from non-healthy subjects should be used. Finally, the paper promotes further development of BV application, such as notifying doctors about changes in patient status

Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Plasmodium-infected and Non-infected Red Blood Cells as Targeted Drug Delivery Vehicles

Among several factors behind drug resistance evolution in malaria is the challenge of administering overall doses that are not toxic for the patient but that, locally, are sufficiently high to rapidly kill the parasites. Thus, a crucial antimalarial strategy is the development of drug delivery systems capable of targeting antimalarial compounds to Plasmodium with high specificity. In the present study, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been evaluated as a drug delivery system for the treatment of malaria. EVs derived from naive red blood cells (RBCs) and from Plasmodium falciparum-infected RBCs (pRBCs) were isolated by ultrafiltration followed by size exclusion chromatography. Lipidomic characterization showed that there were no significant qualitative differences between the lipidomic profiles of pRBC-derived EVs (pRBC-EVs) and RBC-derived EVs (RBC-EVs). Both EVs were taken up by RBCs and pRBCs, although pRBC-EVs were more efficiently internalized than RBC-EVs, which suggested their potential use as drug delivery vehicles for these cells. When loaded into pRBC-EVs, the antimalarial drugs atovaquone and tafenoquine inhibited in vitro P. falciparum growth more efficiently than their free drug counterparts, indicating that pRBC-EVs can potentially increase the efficacy of several small hydrophobic drugs used for the treatment of malaria

Predicting serious complications in patients with cancer and pulmonary embolism using decision tree modelling: the EPIPHANY Index

Background: Our objective was to develop a prognostic stratification tool that enables patients with cancer and pulmonary embolism (PE), whether incidental or symptomatic, to be classified according to the risk of serious complications within 15 days. Methods: The sample comprised cases from a national registry of pulmonary thromboembolism in patients with cancer (1075 patients from 14 Spanish centres). Diagnosis was incidental in 53.5% of the events in this registry. The Exhaustive CHAID analysis was applied with 10-fold crossvalidation to predict development of serious complications following PE diagnosis. Results: About 208 patients (19.3%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 17.1-21.8%) developed a serious complication after PE diagnosis. The 15-day mortality rate was 10.1%, (95% CI, 8.4-12.1%). The decision tree detected six explanatory covariates: Hestia-like clinical decision rule (any risk criterion present vs none), Eastern Cooperative Group performance scale (ECOG-PS; = 2), O-2 saturation (= 90%), presence of PE-specific symptoms, tumour response (progression, unknown, or not evaluated vs others), and primary tumour resection. Three risk classes were created (low, intermediate, and high risk). The risk of serious complications within 15 days increases according to the group: 1.6, 9.4, 30.6%; P<0.0001. Fifteen-day mortality rates also rise progressively in low-, intermediate-, and high-risk patients: 0.3, 6.1, and 17.1%; P<0.0001. The cross-validated risk estimate is 0.191 (s.e. = 0.012). The optimism-corrected area under the receiver operating characteristic curve is 0.779 (95% CI, 0.717-0.840). Conclusions: We have developed and internally validated a prognostic index to predict serious complications with the potential to impact decision-making in patients with cancer and PE

Micromón València (Universitat de València)

En Julio de 2017 se creó la red SWI@Spain, auspiciada por el grupo de Docencia y Difusión de la Microbiología (DDM) de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología (SEM), para desarrollar la iniciativa internacional Small World Initiative (SWI) en la península ibérica. En la Universitat de València (UV) se constituyó entonces el grupo de Innovación Docente en Microbiología (IDM) para implementar el proyecto a nivel local. Avalados por el Servei de Formació Permanent i Innovació Educativa (SFPIE) de la UV, el grupo ha llevado a cabo diferentes iniciativas relacionadas con el objetivo fundamental del proyecto: divulgar la problemática actual relacionada con el uso inadecuado de antibióticos, el incremento de bacterias resistentes a éstos y la necesidad de encontrar nuevas moléculas con actividad antibacteriana para combatir las infecciones que provocan