Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particles’ surface is essential. During this process, the original coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove the generic character, different functional groups were introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as well as human plasma and serum was investigated to allow implementation in biomedical and sensing applications.status: publishe

Effects of Once-Weekly Exenatide on Cardiovascular Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular effects of adding once-weekly treatment with exenatide to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes are unknown. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes, with or without previous cardiovascular disease, to receive subcutaneous injections of extended-release exenatide at a dose of 2 mg or matching placebo once weekly. The primary composite outcome was the first occurrence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. The coprimary hypotheses were that exenatide, administered once weekly, would be noninferior to placebo with respect to safety and superior to placebo with respect to efficacy. RESULTS: In all, 14,752 patients (of whom 10,782 [73.1%] had previous cardiovascular disease) were followed for a median of 3.2 years (interquartile range, 2.2 to 4.4). A primary composite outcome event occurred in 839 of 7356 patients (11.4%; 3.7 events per 100 person-years) in the exenatide group and in 905 of 7396 patients (12.2%; 4.0 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.00), with the intention-to-treat analysis indicating that exenatide, administered once weekly, was noninferior to placebo with respect to safety (P<0.001 for noninferiority) but was not superior to placebo with respect to efficacy (P=0.06 for superiority). The rates of death from cardiovascular causes, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal or nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and the incidence of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes with or without previous cardiovascular disease, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events did not differ significantly between patients who received exenatide and those who received placebo. (Funded by Amylin Pharmaceuticals; EXSCEL ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01144338 .)

Epinephelus fuscoguttatus mariculture in Indonesia: Implications from fish parasite infections

Indonesia plays a major role in grouper supply for the Hong Kong based Live Reef Food Fish Trade. Hong Kong is the biggest consumer of Live Reef Food Fish in the world and around 50% of the grouper originate from Indonesia. In order to match Hong Kong market demands, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries started to implement plans to intensify mariculture farming, to boost grouper production. One inevitable consequence of this intensification is the increase of fish diseases and parasite infections. Samples of Epinephelus fuscoguttatus were obtained from four mariculture facilities in Lampung Bay (South Sumatra) and one in Pulau Seribu (North off western Java), Indonesia, to investigate and compare the parasite composition. In total 35 parasite species were detected. Different ecological parameters e.g. ecto/endoparasite ratio and Shannon–Wiener diversity Index were utilized to analyze the parasite composition at the different mariculture sites. We also recorded the cultivation methods for each facility including e.g. density of fish in the cages and other cultivation strategies. Our results demonstrate that the feeding strategy and e.g. the stocking density of fish in the cages significantly affect the composition of the grouper’s parasite fauna. As trash fish, which enables parasite transmission, is still one of the main feed sources, one of the major future tasks is the search for alternative feed sources and feeding strategies to prevent parasite spread and pathogenic outbreaks. Education of the farm management and unified standards for the often small-size producers are required in order to safeguard grouper mariculture development in the future