Genetic variants linked to myopic macular degeneration in persons with high myopia: CREAM Consortium

Purpose To evaluate the roles of known myopia-associated genetic variants for development of myopic macular degeneration (MMD) in individuals with high myopia (HM), using case-control studies from the Consortium of Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM). Methods A candidate gene approach tested 50 myopia-associated loci for association with HM and MMD, using meta-analyses of case-control studies comprising subjects of European and Asian ancestry aged 30 to 80 years from 10 studies. Fifty loci with the strongest associations with myopia were chosen from a previous published GWAS study. Highly myopic (spherical equivalent [SE] -5.0 diopters [D]) cases with MMD (N = 348), and two sets of controls were enrolled: (1) the first set included 16,275 emmetropes (SE -0.5 D); and (2) second set included 898 highly myopic subjects (SE -5.0 D) without MMD. MMD was classified based on the International photographic classification for pathologic myopia (META-PM). Results In the first analysis, comprising highly myopic cases with MMD (N = 348) versus emmetropic controls without MMD (N = 16,275), two SNPs were significantly associated with high myopia in adults with HM and MMD: (1) rs10824518 (P = 6.20E-07) in KCNMA1, which is highly expressed in human retinal and scleral tissues; and (2) rs524952 (P = 2.32E-16) near GJD2. In the second analysis, comprising highly myopic cases with MMD (N = 348) versus highly myopic controls without MMD (N = 898), none of the SNPs studied reached Bonferroni-corrected significance. Conclusions Of the 50 myopia-associated loci, we did not find any variant specifically associated with MMD, but the KCNMA1 and GJD2 loci were significantly associated with HM in highly myopic subjects with MMD, compared to emmetropes

In-situ monitoring of potential enhanced DNA related processes using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (EQCM-D)

The effect of applied potential pulses on DNA functionalization (thiolated single stranded DNA) and hybridization processes has been monitored in-situ on gold surfaces using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (EQCM-D). The applied potentials were chosen with respect to the potential of zero charge (E-pzc) of the gold surfaces: a positive potential to attract the negatively charged DNA molecules and a negative potential to enhance the vertical alignment due to electrostatic repulsion. The obtained results clearly show that both DNA modification and hybridization are strongly enhanced by applying potential pulses. Based on the EQCM-D results, we present a model to explain the influence of the potential pulsing. Aside from the effect of applied potentials on DNA related processes, this work also demonstrates the versatility of the combination of electrochemistry and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation in facilitating real-time in situ monitoring of such processes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Study on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrate Based on Titanium Oxide Nanorods Coated with Gold Nanoparticles

A 3D surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate based on titanium oxide nanorods (TiOx-NRs) coated with gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) was fabricated by a simple hydrothermal, no-template process. The nanostructure of TiOx-NRs influenced by the concentrations of hydrochloric (HCl) acid and sodium chloride (NaCl) was studied in detail. The substrate showed the strongest Raman enhancement, when the diameters of Au-NPs were around 40 nm and the gaps of Au-NPs were in the range of 5 nm to 10 nm. The surface electric field of our substrate was examined by finite-different time-domain (FDTD) solutions. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was chosen as the probe molecule to study the SERS performance of the substrates. The Raman signal of 10−10 M R6G was detected clearly by the substrate with the enhancement factor of 2.64 × 108. All relative standard deviation (RSD) values of the major peaks for R6G were within the scope of 10.4% to 16.7%. The substrate could work efficiently even after immersed in water for one month