Clinical Utility of Serum Autoantibodies Detected by Protein Microarray in Melanoma

Better prognostic and predictive markers in melanoma are needed to select patients for therapy. We utilized a dual-lectin affinity chromatography and a natural protein microarray-based analysis to select a subproteome of target glycoproteins to profile serum antibodies against melanoma associated antigens that may predict nodal positivity. We identified 5 melanoma-associated antigens using this microarray coupled to mass spectrometry; GRP75, GRP94, ASAH1, CTSD and LDHB. We evaluated their predictive value for nodal status adjusting for age, gender, Breslow thickness, mitotic rate and ulceration using standard logistic regression. After adjustment, ASAH1, CTSD and LDHB were significantly negatively associated with nodal status (P = 0.0008) and GRP94 was significantly positively associated (P = 0.014). Our best multivariate model for nodal positivity included Breslow thickness, presence of serum anti-ASAH1, anti-LDHB or anti-CTSD, and presence of serum anti-GRP94, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.869. If validated, these results show promise for selecting clinically node negative patients for SLN biopsy. In addition, there is strong potential for glycoprotein microarray to screen serum autoantibodies that may identify patients at high risk of distant metastases or those likely or unlikely to respond to treatment, and these proteins may serve as targets for intervention

B lymphocytes as effector cells in the immunotherapy of cancer

Over the years, the role of B cells in the host immune response to malignancy has been overshadowed by our focus on T cells. Nevertheless, B cells play important roles as antigen‐presenting cells and in the production of antibodies. Furthermore, B cells can function as effector cells that mediate tumor destruction on their own. This review will highlight the various functions of B cells that are involved in the host response to tumor. J. Surg. Oncol. 2012;105:431–435. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90339/1/22093_ftp.pd

Self-assembled hollow nanosphere arrays used as low Q whispering gallery mode resonators on thin film solar cells for light trapping

MOST of China under the 973 programs [2009CB930704]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [61106118]; Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China [2011J01362]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2011121026]Optical micro/nano-spherical cavities can be designed to confine light by generating resonances in whispering gallery modes (WGM) and then couple them into the substrate through leaky modes, which can be potentially used in thin film solar cells for absorption enhancements. In this work, the transparent ZnO electrodes in a hollow nanosphere (HNS) structure were proposed as WGM resonators to trap sunlight for the absorption enhancement in silicon thin film solar cells. A low cost and high throughput template based technology was developed to fabricate the ZnO HNS arrays on the Si substrates. Significant simulated absorption enhancement has been demonstrated on the ZnO HNS arrays decorated thin film solar cell with an active layer down to 250 nm in thickness. A 9.3% enhancement in the short circuit current density can be achieved theoretically by comparing the ZnO HNS array modified amorphous Si thin film solar cell with an anti-reflection layer configured cell

Multi-hot spot configuration on urchin-like Ag nanoparticle/ZnO hollow nanosphere arrays for highly sensitive SERS

MOST of China under the 973 programs [2009CB930704]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [61106118]; Science and Technology Project of Fujian Province of China [2013H0046]; Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China [2011J01362]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2011121026]Urchin-like Ag nanoparticle (NP)/ZnO hollow nanosphere (HNS) arrays were fabricated employing a simple, low cost and wafer scale method consisting of nanosphere lithography (NSL) and solution processes. This three-dimensional (3D) multi-hot spot decorated nanocomposite presents an as high as 108 Raman enhancement using Rhodamine 6G (R6G) as the probe with the concentration down to 10(-10) M. The high density hot spots in a unit area and strong field intensity around each individual hot spot in 3D layout are believed to be the major reasons for this high sensitivity Raman phenomenon, which is further proved by the theoretical simulation results. Given its high Raman sensitivity and good reproducibility in a large area, this urchin-like Ag NP/ZnO HNS hybrid nanoarray can be reasonably proposed to be used as a SERS substrate in practical applications, including bio-sensing, materials characterization, environmental science and so on

Band edge emission enhancement by quadrupole surface plasmon-exciton coupling using direct-contact Ag/ZnO nanospheres

Periodic Ag nanoball (NB) arrays on ZnO hollow nanosphere (HNS) supporting structures were fabricated in a large area by a laser irradiation method. The optimized laser power and spherical supporting structure of ZnO with a certain size and separation were employed to aggregate a sputtering-deposited Ag nano-film into an ordered, large-area, and two dimensional Ag NB array. A significant band edge (BE) emission enhancement of ZnO HNSs was achieved on this Ag NB/ZnO HNS hybrid structure and the mechanism was revealed by further experimental and theoretical analyses. With successfully fabricating the direct-contact structure of a Ag NB on the top of each ZnO HNS, the highly localized quadrupole mode surface plasmon resonance (SPR), realized on the metal NBs in the ultraviolet region, can effectively improve the BE emission of ZnO through strong coupling with the excitons of ZnO. Compared with the dipole mode SPR, the quadrupole mode SPR is insensitive to the metal nanoparticle's size and has a resonance frequency in the BE region of the wide band gap materials, hence, it can be potentially applied in related optoelectronic devices

Plasmonic-enhanced self-cleaning activity on asymmetric Ag/ZnO surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates under UV and visible light irradiation

Two different asymmetric Ag/ZnO composite nanoarrays were fabricated. These nanoarrays are proposed as highly sensitive and uniform surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates with plasmonic-enhanced UV-visible photocatalytic properties for self-cleaning. The asymmetric nanostructures are composed of Ag nanoparticles hanging inside or capping on the top of ZnO hollow nanospheres, which allows the generation of a strong local electric field near the contact area owing to the asymmetric dielectric environment. Experimental and simulation results showed that these asymmetric structures are favorable for achieving high photocatalytic activity under UV and visible light irradiation, in addition to improving the SERS performance. The electron transfer model based on band gap alignment was employed to further illustrate the mechanisms of the photocatalytic activity, which was dependent on the wavelength of the irradiation. Given the dramatically improved photocatalytic performance, together with the reproducible and uniform SERS signals verified by the Raman mapping results, the large area ordered asymmetric metal/semiconductor nanoarrays have been demonstrated to be suitable for further applications in multifunctional photoelectrochemical chips. This journal is ? the Partner Organisations 2014

Association of maternal lipid levels with birth weight and cord blood insulin: a Bayesian network analysis

Objective: To assess the independent association of maternal lipid levels with birth weight and cord blood insulin (CBI) level. Setting: The Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study, Guangzhou, China. Participants: Women who delivered between January 2015 and June 2016 and with umbilical cord blood retained were eligible for this study. Those with prepregnancy health conditions, without an available fasting blood sample in the second trimester, or without demographic and glycaemic information were excluded. After random selection, data from 1522 mother–child pairs were used in this study. Exposures and outcome measures: Additive Bayesian network analysis was used to investigate the interdependency of lipid profiles with other metabolic risk factors (prepregnancy body mass index (BMI), fasting glucose and early gestational weight gain) in association with birth weight and CBI, along with multivariable linear regression models. Results: In multivariable linear regressions, maternal triglyceride was associated with increased birth weight (adjusted β=67.46, 95% CI 41.85 to 93.06 g per mmol/L) and CBI (adjusted β=0.89, 95% CI 0.06 to 1.72 μU/mL per mmol/L increase), while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was associated with decreased birth weight (adjusted β=−45.29, 95% CI −85.49 to −5.09 g per mmol/L). After considering the interdependency of maternal metabolic risk factors in the Network analysis, none of the maternal lipid profiles was independently associated with birth weight and CBI. Instead, prepregnancy BMI was the global strongest factor for birth weight and CBI directly and indirectly. Conclusions: Gestational dyslipidaemia appears to be secondary to metabolic dysfunction with no clear association with metabolic adverse outcomes in neonates. Maternal prepregnancy overweight/obesity appears the most influential upstream metabolic risk factor for both maternal and neonatal metabolic health; these data imply weight management may need to be addressed from the preconception period and during early pregnancy