BSA Hydrogel Beads Functionalized with a Specific Aptamer Library for Capturing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Serum and Blood

Systemic blood stream infections are a major threat to human health and are dramatically increasing worldwide. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a WHO-alerted multi-resistant pathogen of extreme importance as a cause of sepsis. Septicemia patients have significantly increased survival chances if sepsis is diagnosed in the early stages. Affinity materials can not only represent attractive tools for specific diagnostics of pathogens in the blood but can prospectively also serve as the technical foundation of therapeutic filtration devices. Based on the recently developed aptamers directed against P. aeruginosa, we here present aptamer-functionalized beads for specific binding of this pathogen in blood samples. These aptamer capture beads (ACBs) are manufactured by crosslinking bovine serum albumin (BSA) in an emulsion and subsequent functionalization with the amino-modified aptamers on the bead surface using the thiol- and amino-reactive bispecific crosslinker PEG(4)-SPDP. Specific and quantitative binding of P. aeruginosa as the dedicated target of the ACBs was demonstrated in serum and blood. These initial but promising results may open new routes for the development of ACBs as a platform technology for fast and reliable diagnosis of bloodstream infections and, in the long term, blood filtration techniques in the fight against sepsis

Albumin Microspheres as “Trans-ferry-beads” for Easy Cell Passaging in Cell Culture Technology

Protein hydrogels represent ideal materials for advanced cell culture applications, including 3D-cultivation of even fastidious cells. Key properties of fully functional and, at the same time, economically successful cell culture materials are excellent biocompatibility and advanced fabrication processes allowing their easy production even on a large scale based on affordable compounds. Chemical crosslinking of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) in a water-in-oil emulsion with isoparaffinic oil as the continuous phase and sorbitan monooleate as surfactant generates micro-meter-scale spherical particles. They allow a significant simplification of an indispensable and laborious step in traditional cell culture workflows. This cell passaging (or splitting) to fresh culture vessels/flasks conventionally requires harsh trypsinization, which can be omitted by using the “trans-ferry-beads” presented here. When added to different pre-cultivated adherent cell lines, the beads are efficiently boarded by cells as passengers and can be easily transferred afterward for the embarkment of novel flasks. After this procedure, cells are perfectly viable and show normal growth behavior. Thus, the trans-ferry-beads not only may become extremely affordable as a final product but also may generally replace trypsinization in conventional cell culture, thereby opening new routes for the establishment of optimized and resource-efficient workflows in biological and medical cell culture laboratories

Impatto dell’emergenza COVID-19 sui volumi di attività della chirurgia protesica ortopedica in sette Regioni italiane. Versione del 17 marzo 2021

Per fronteggiare la pandemia da COVID-19 e soddisfare i nuovi bisogni di assistenza, a marzo 2020 le Regioni italiane hanno sospeso la chirurgia elettiva, alcune fino a oltre metà giugno. Ogni anno, in Italia, si effettuano circa 200.000 sostituzioni articolari, si può stimare quindi che a causa del lockdown oltre 50.000 pazienti abbiano visto rinviato il proprio intervento. Lo studio, a cui partecipano sette Regioni, si propone di monitorare con analisi periodiche i volumi della chirurgia protesica articolare a partire dal 2020 confrontandoli con quelli del 2018 e 2019. Il rapporto presenta i risultati delle analisi sui dati delle Schede di Dimissione Ospedaliera relative ai pazienti dimessi entro il 30/09/2020 e pone le basi per una più approfondita valutazione degli effetti della situazione di emergenza sui pazienti. Vengono brevemente descritte le strategie per la riorganizzazione adottate dalle Regioni partecipanti e riportate le esperienze di alcune strutture dal punto di vista dei chirurghi coinvolti. I risultati ottenuti possono costituire un utile riferimento per i diversi stakeholder per misurare le dinamiche di recupero dei ritardi conseguenti alla sospensione della chirurgia elettiva e comprendere gli effetti sulle liste d’attesa di eventuali ulteriori sospensioni.To meet new healthcare demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemics, in March 2020 Italian Regions suspended elective surgery, in some cases beyond mid-June. About 200,000 joint replacements are performed every year in Italy. It can therefore be estimated that due to the lockdown over 50,000 patients have had their surgery postponed. The study involved 7 Regions to monitor the volumes of arthroplasty operations in 2020 and compare them with data from 2018 and 2019. The report presents the results of the analysis of the Hospital Discharge data until 30/09/2020 and lays the foundations for a more in-depth assessment of the effects of the emergency on patients. Furthermore, it describes the strategies of reorganization adopted by the participating Regions, as well as the experiences of some facilities from the point of view of the surgeons involved. The results of this report might be a useful resource for stakeholders as they allow to measure the recovering of the delays resulted from the suspension of elective surgery and can help understanding the effects of any further suspensions on the waiting lists