Evaluation of serum paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in ankylosing spondylitis patients

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the activities of serum paraoxonase and arylesterase in patients with ankylosing spondylitis with respect to those of healthy controls, to assess whether these enzyme levels are related to disease activity and functional capacity. METHODS: The study included 32 patients with ankylosing spondylitis whose diagnoses were made according to the modified New York criteria as well as 25 healthy controls matched for age and sex. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index and the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index were applied to the ankylosing spondylitis patients. As laboratory parameters, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and serum C-reactive protein level were measured in patients and control subjects. Paraoxonase and arylesterase enzyme activities were measured using appropriate methods. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences (p>;0.05) were found between the ankylosing spondylitis patients and controls in terms of serum paraoxonase or arylesterase levels. Furthermore, there was no correlation between clinical and laboratory parameters in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. CONCLUSION: Serum paraoxonase and arylesterase levels in ankylosing spondylitis patients may not differ from those of healthy controls, and there is no significant correlation between antioxidant parameters and the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index or Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index scores in ankylosing spondylitis patients. Further research is needed to provide deeper understanding of this disease

Relationship between serum interleukin-1β levels and acute phase response proteins in patients with familial Mediterranean fever

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum levels of interleukin-1β (IL–1β) has any possible correlation on inflammatory parameters such as C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and fibrinogen concentration in patients with familial Mediterra-nean fever (FMF) patients during attack-free period. Materials and methods: The serum levels of IL-1β, as an indicator of cytokines status, and the acute phase response proteins, CRP, ESR and fibrinogen levels were evaluated in 35 attack-free patients with FMF and 25 healthy volunteers. Results: Serum IL-1β levels were significantly higher in patients with FMF than control subjects (P = 0.018). There was no statistically significant difference in the serum levels of ESR, CRP and fibrino-gen between two groups (P = 0.181, P = 0.816, P = 0.686, respectively). There was a significant cor-relation between IL-1β and CRP (r = 0.513, P = 0.002) values of FMF group. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results confirm the presence of increased IL-1β levels in FMF pati-ents during attack-free period. Serum IL-1β values seems to correlate with CRP levels. The elevation of IL-1β levels may be important in monitoring subclinical inflammation of attack free period in FMF patients

Long‐Lived Triplet Excited State Accessed with Spin–Orbit Charge Transfer Intersystem Crossing in Red Light‐Absorbing Phenoxazine‐Styryl BODIPY Electron Donor/Acceptor Dyads

Orthogonal phenoxazine-styryl BODIPY compact electron donor/acceptor dyads were prepared as heavy atom-free triplet photosensitizers (PSs) with strong red light absorption (epsilon=1.33x10(5) M-1 cm(-1) at 630 nm), whereas the previously reported triplet photosensitizers based on the spin-orbit charge transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC) mechanism show absorption in a shorter wavelength range (<500 nm). More importantly, a long-lived triplet state (tau(T)=333 mu s) was observed for the new dyads. In comparison, the triplet state lifetime of the same chromophore accessed with the conventional heavy atom effect (HAE) is much shorter (tau(T)=1.8 mu s). Long triplet state lifetime is beneficial to enhance electron or energy transfer, the primary photophysical processes in the application of triplet PSs. Our approach is based on SOCT-ISC, without invoking of the HAE, which may shorten the triplet state lifetime. We used bisstyrylBodipy both as the electron acceptor and the visible light-harvesting chromophore, which shows red-light absorption. Femtosecond transient absorption spectra indicated the charge separation (109 ps) and SOCT-ISC (charge recombination, CR; 2.3 ns) for BDP-1. ISC efficiency of BDP-1 was determined as phi(T)=25 % (in toluene). The dyad BDP-3 was used as triplet PS for triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (upconversion quantum yield phi(UC)=1.5 %; anti-Stokes shift is 5900 cm(-1))

Defect assisted optical limiting performance of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets in aqueous suspension and PMMA nanocomposite films

Defect-assisted nonlinear absorption (NLA) and optical limiting (OL) performance of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNS) in aqueous suspension and in polymethyl methacrylate matrix (PMMA) as nanocomposite films were studied using open-aperture Z-scan method. To evaluate the transmission in open-aperture Z-scan data, a theoretical model accounting one photon absorption (OPA), two photon absorption (TPA), free carrier absorption (FCA) and saturation of each process was considered. Defect-assisted NLA coefficients and saturation intensity thresholds were extracted from the fitting of the experimental results for 532 and 1064 nm pulse wavelengths. Strong defect-assisted NLA response of h-BNNS was observed while NLA at 532 nm was considerably stronger. This is attributed to the excitation of a greater number of defect states over a wider energy range. Our findings showed that h-BNNS/PMMA nanocomposite films feature highly required properties in OL applications and can function in OL applications in a wide spectral range (-200-1064 nm)

Ultrafast electron/energy transfer and intersystem crossing mechanisms in bodipy-porphyrin compounds

Meso-substituted borondipyrromethene (BODIPY)-porphyrin compounds that include free base porphyrin with two different numbers of BODIPY groups (BDP-TTP and 3BDP-TTP) were designed and synthesized to analyze intramolecular energy transfer mechanisms of meso-substituted BODIPY-porphyrin dyads and the effect of the different numbers of BODIPY groups connected to free-base porphyrin on the energy transfer mechanism. Absorption spectra of BODIPY-porphyrin conjugates showed wide absorption features in the visible region, and that is highly valuable to increase light-harvesting efficiency. Fluorescence spectra of the studied compounds proved that BODIPY emission intensity decreased upon the photoexcitation of the BODIPY core, due to the energy transfer from BODIPY unit to porphyrin. In addition, ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy measurements indicated that the energy transfer of the 3BDP-TTP compound (about 3 ps) is faster than the BDP-TTP compound (about 22 ps). Since the BODIPY core directly binds to the porphyrin unit, rapid energy transfer was seen for both compounds. Thus, the energy transfer rate increased with an increasing number of BODIPY moiety connected to free-base porphyrin

Expanding the clinical and immunological phenotypes of PAX1-deficient SCID and CID patients

Paired box 1 (PAX1) deficiency has been reported in a small number of patients diagnosed with otofaciocervical syndrome type 2 (OFCS2). We described six new patients who demonstrated variable clinical penetrance. Reduced transcriptional activity of pathogenic variants confirmed partial or complete PAX1 deficiency. Thymic aplasia and hypoplasia were associated with impaired T cell immunity. Corrective treatment was required in 4/6 patients. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation resulted in poor immune reconstitution with absent naïve T cells, contrasting with the superior recovery of T cell immunity after thymus transplantation. Normal ex vivo differentiation of PAX1-deficient CD34+ cells into mature T cells demonstrated the absence of a hematopoietic cell-intrinsic defect. New overlapping features with DiGeorge syndrome included primary hypoparathyroidism (n = 5) and congenital heart defects (n = 2), in line with PAX1 expression during early embryogenesis. Our results highlight new features of PAX1 deficiency, which are relevant to improving early diagnosis and identifying patients requiring corrective treatment

Major fatty acids composition of 32 almond (Prunus dulcis [Mill.] D.A. Webb) genotypes distributed in East and Southeast of Anatolia

Objective: In this study, the fatty acid compositions of 32 different almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. A. Webb) genotypes seeds that collected from South and South East Anatolia regions in Turkey were studied