Clinical observations of serological diagnosis of gonorrhea

Carl Funk (Derm. Ztschr. Bd. 55, H. 2, 1929) performed a complement rejection reaction in 600 gonorroics and in 100 people with various other diseases, and in acute gonorrhea A. received 60% of positive results, in chronic - 80%, with epididymitis 90%, with prostatitis and spermatocystitis 97%, with arthritis, bursitis and tendovaginitis 97%. The brightness of the reaction is observed on the 14th day after the onset of the disease. According to the author's observations, the reaction is characterized by great specificity, only in isolated cases (polyart. Reumatica) there is a nonspecific delay in hemolysis. The reaction is of great service in differentiating doubtful cases of inflammation of the appendages, eyes, joints, heart disease and gonococcal sepsis and a number of other diseases of the genitourinary sphere. Stable positive, the reaction of deviation of complement in cases of establishing the fact that gonorrhea has been cured indicates the presence of a hidden focus with gonococci.

Eco-Friendly Fluorescent ELISA Based on Bifunctional Phage for Ultrasensitive Detection of Ochratoxin A in Corn

Conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is commonly used for Ochratoxin A (OTA) screening, but it is limited by low sensitivity and harmful competing antigens of enzyme-OTA conjugates. Herein, a bifunctional M13 bacteriophage with OTA mimotopes fused on the p3 protein and biotin modified on major p8 proteins was introduced as an eco-friendly competing antigen and enzyme container for enhanced sensitivity. Mercaptopropionic acid-modified quantum dots (MPA-QDs), which are extremely sensitive to hydrogen peroxide, were chosen as fluorescent signal transducers that could manifest glucose oxidase-induced fluorescence quenching in the presence of glucose. On these bases, a highly sensitive and eco-friendly fluorescent immunoassay for OTA sensing was developed. Under optimized conditions, the proposed method demonstrates a good linear detection of OTA from 4.8 to 625 pg/mL and a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.39 pg/mL. The LOD is approximately 26-fold lower than that of a conventional horse radish peroxidase (HRP) based ELISA and six-fold lower than that of a GOx-OTA conjugate-based fluorescent ELISA. The proposed method also shows great specificity and accepted accuracy for analyzing OTA in real corn samples. The detection results are highly consistent with those obtained using the ultra-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection method, indicating the high reliability of the proposed method for OTA detection. In conclusion, the proposed method is an excellent OTA screening platform over a conventional ELISA and can be easily extended for sensing other analytes by altering specific mimic peptide sequences in phages.

Phages and Enzybiotics in Food Biopreservation

Presently, biopreservation through protective bacterial cultures and their antimicrobial products or using antibacterial compounds derived from plants are proposed as feasible strategies to maintain the long shelf-life of products. Another emerging category of food biopreservatives are bacteriophages or their antibacterial enzymes called “phage lysins” or “enzybiotics”, which can be used directly as antibacterial agents due to their ability to act on the membranes of bacteria and destroy them. Bacteriophages are an alternative to antimicrobials in the fight against bacteria, mainly because they have a practically unique host range that gives them great specificity. In addition to their potential ability to specifically control strains of pathogenic bacteria, their use does not generate a negative environmental impact as in the case of antibiotics. Both phages and their enzymes can favor a reduction in antibiotic use, which is desirable given the alarming increase in resistance to antibiotics used not only in human medicine but also in veterinary medicine, agriculture, and in general all processes of manufacturing, preservation, and distribution of food. We present here an overview of the scientific background of phages and enzybiotics in the food industry, as well as food applications of these biopreservatives.

Imaging of Portal Gastroduodenopathy

Portal hypertension is characterized by elevated pressure in portal venous system due to portal resistance due to various causes. The etiologies are either pre-hepatic, hepatic, or post-hepatic. Elevated portal pressure results in varices at various sites some of which are difficult to identify on endoscopy alone. Other manifestations of elevated portal pressure include portal gastropathy, enteropathy, colopathy, gastric antral vascular ectasia, and ascites. Imaging plays an essential role in diagnosis and imaging of various manifestations of portal hypertension by determining the locations of varices and plan the management for same. Endoscopy helps in visualizing mucosal varices but newer imaging modalities give a panoramic extent of the disease in the entire gastrointestinal tract with great specificity and sensitivity. Initially, Barium study was used to determine esophageal or gastric varices, computed tomography provides detailed anatomic information which can be used to plan management. Due to advancement in imaging and interventional techniques, treatment for varices has seen advent of multiple minimally invasive interventional radiological techniques. A brief outlook on anatomical aspect of varices and various recent advances in management of the same has been provided. Overall knowledge of the various imaging manifestations of portal hypertension can be helpful to evaluate prognosis and plan proper management.

Sensitive and Specific Detecting Biomarker of Radiation-Resistant Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma by TpTta-COF Nanosheet

An important attribute of microRNA-205 (MiR-205) is their potential use as predictive biomarker for anti-radiation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and it is pivotal to monitor the dynamic change of MiR-205 for personalized precise treatment strategies. So far, there are several methods aiming at detecting MiR-205 while rarely has worked out questions such as limited complex detection processes, poor sample detection limit or spending lots of time. Therefore, a method for detecting MiR-205 based on 2D COF nanosheets and fluorescent oligonucleotide probe was constructed and investigated in this study. The 2D COF nanosheet quenches the fluorescence of the fluorescent single-stranded DNA (ss-DNA) probes through fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). The method enables to capture MiR-205 sensitively in aqueous solution with a detection limit of 4.78[Formula: see text]nM in the range 0–500[Formula: see text]nM and [Formula: see text], and the method offers great specificity in that it can distinguish the target miRNA from mismatch nontarget miRNAs. Considering its simple operability and excellent specificity, it has great application prospects in the detection of miRNA biomarker in clinical diagnosis and personalized treatment plan.

Atmospheric mercury pollution: the current methodological framework outlined by environmental legislation

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that exists in the atmosphere in several forms, operationally identified according to their chemical and physical characteristics. The problem of atmospheric mercury pollution has recently received increasing attention, as evidenced by the numerous European regulations issued in the last years. The normative question is closely related to the methodological one, as the quantification of the mercury species is strictly linked to the sampling and analysis methods. Due to their different bioavailability, airborne mercury forms detection is fundamental both in outdoor and indoor (i.e., workplace) environments. This paper presents an overview of European legislation on atmospheric mercury pollution, with particular attention to the Italian legislation. Starting from the regulatory protocols, the methodological framework for mercury quantification was reviewed, underlining the limits and the problems of the different methodologies and providing new guidance for the analysis. Regulatory and methodological updates have led to great specificity in mercury quantification, which is distinguished for the outdoor and indoor environments. For workplace environments, all mercury species (i.e., gaseous and particulate mercury) are required to be quantified by the Italian legislation; on the contrary, only gaseous compounds are monitored in outdoor conditions. It hence appears of primary importance that the monitoring operator chooses the sampling and analytical method for mercury sampling and analysis that correctly adheres to the normative regulations. Detailed norms describe how to carry on the monitoring in both outdoor and indoor conditions, preventing the operator’s arbitrariness, which otherwise can lead to airborne mercury underestimation/overestimation.

DEFINITION OF ORCHIDS (ORCHIDACEAE) OF THE SOCHI BLACK SEA REGION BY MICROMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SEEDS

According to the results of preliminary studies of the micromorphology of orchids seeds in the Sochi Black Sea region, a key has been compiled to identify 25 species and subspecies from 13 genera by seed. The most valuable features of seed structure for diagnosis were identified from the previously described characteristics: seed shape, its length, the number of cells in testa, their shape in different parts of testa. Limodorum-type seeds have fusiform, linear or balloon-shape and Orchis-type seeds are pear-shaped or club-shaped. The shape of the cells is the same throughout the testa or contrasting one – elongated in the micropylar and medial parts and isodiametric at the chalazal pole. This trait also distinguishes the type of seed. Some genera are characterized by convoluted or smooth anticlinal cell walls. The periclinal walls of the cells have sculptural thickenings of different patterns, or no pattern. This feature consistently characterizes different genera and even species. Frequent or rare stripes of the sculpture, mostly straight or curved, forming gaps at the borders of cells or not – these features are species-specific. Relative sizes, in particular, the ratio of the length of a seed to the length of an embryo, as well as the proportion of sizes of parts of seed coats have great specificity. On the contrary, orientation of the strokes of the sculpture, the presence of suspension residues and the degree of homogeneity of an embryo are not reliable diagnostic features. The key is useful for field researches for studying the distribution of orchids in the period after flowering and until the seeds are completely dispersed.

Predictive values of inflammatory back pain, positive HLA B27 antigen and acute and chronic magnetic resonance changes in early diagnosis of Spondyloarthritis. A study of 133 patients

Objectives To analyse the predictive values of inflammatory back pain (IBP), positive HLA B27 antigen, increased C-reactive protein (CRP), Spondyloarthritis (SpA) features, familial history (FH), magnetic resonance sacroiliac joints (MRI-SIJ) imaging and its weight in early SpA diagnosis. Methods 133 patients with back pain, aged <50, duration of the pain <2 years were included. Data such as IBP, HLA B27, increased CRP, SpA features, FH, SIJ´s radiography and MRI were collected for each patient. STIR sequences were classified as strongly positive bone morrow oedema (SPBME ≥2), clearly present and easily recognisable as positive according to the ASAS criterion, weakly positive (WPBME ≥2), suggestive, but not easily recognisable and, clearly negative none of those features. T1-weighted sequences were assessed as positive/negative for erosion, fat metaplasia, backfill and sclerosis, if ≥1, for each lesion was present. MRI images were read by three blinded readers. Results The average age was 38.9 years. 47 (35.3%) patients received SpA diagnosis according to the clinical opinion. IBP was highly specific, 0.81 and sensitive, 0.83. HLA B27 was positive in a half of the SpA patients. SPBME ≥2 provided a great specificity, 0.94 and an acceptable sensitivity, 0.79. Erosion was significantly more frequent in SpA patients (72% vs 7%), specificity 0.93. The addition of erosion ≥1 to the WPBME ≥2 noticeably improved specificity, 0.98, although slightly decreased sensitivity, 0.64. Fat metaplasia and backfill were highly specific, but poorly sensitive. Factors forecasting positive diagnosis were IBP, followed by SpA features and increased CRP. Conclusions At the onset, IBP might be a good marker for selecting patients with suspicion of SpA. The addition of erosion to the ASAS criterion might be helpful for early diagnosis, especially in patients with doubtful STIR imaging where BME is present but it is hard to determinate whether the ASAS “highly suggestive” criterion is met.

gpps: an ILP-based approach for inferring cancer progression with mutation losses from single cell data

Background Cancer progression reconstruction is an important development stemming from the phylogenetics field. In this context, the reconstruction of the phylogeny representing the evolutionary history presents some peculiar aspects that depend on the technology used to obtain the data to analyze: Single Cell DNA Sequencing data have great specificity, but are affected by moderate false negative and missing value rates. Moreover, there has been some recent evidence of back mutations in cancer: this phenomenon is currently widely ignored. Results We present a new tool, , that reconstructs a tumor phylogeny from Single Cell Sequencing data, allowing each mutation to be lost at most a fixed number of times. The General Parsimony Phylogeny from Single cell () tool is open source and available at https://github.com/AlgoLab/gpps. Conclusions provides new insights to the analysis of intra-tumor heterogeneity by proposing a new progression model to the field of cancer phylogeny reconstruction on Single Cell data.

Direct Binding of Complementary Symmetric Ligands to DNA Nucleotide Pairs by Means of Transcription Factors

To activate gene expression, the initiation of transcription is a highly regulated process involving the interaction of proteins and DNA nucleotides at the promoter site, which consists of a small number of base pairs. As it involves interactions at the atomic scale, it is challenging to determine the mechanism of binding responsible for the great specificity between the amino acid residuals comprising the transcription binding protein and the DNA nucleotides comprising the promoter. Here, a new approach to characterize the transcription initiation process is developed and verified from analysis of comparative pharmacological efficacy data and elemental modeling. The newly developed description of a mechanism for transcription initiation involves the direct binding of small molecule ligands of approximately twenty carbon atoms, which are both structurally symmetric to DNA nucleotides, and also chemically complementary in its functional groups for interaction with the oxygen element at the carbon two position of thymine and with the phosphodiester chain. The results indicate that the activating ligands are transported to the DNA nucleotide promoter site by protein transcription factors, which serve as delivery vectors, for transfer of the ligand to the DNA nucleotide pairs. The ligands examined in this study include the steroid hormones, synthetic steroid molecules, derivatives of vitamin D, and prostaglandins, particularly PGJ2 and 15d-PGJ2. The transcription factors evaluated include glucocorticoid receptors, VDR, PPAR, and TBP. Through the developments, it is shown that because of the chemically complementary binding of the ligand to DNA nucleotide pairs, the resultant intermolecular complex produces three hydrogen bonds for the A-T and T-A configurations, which matches that of G-C and C-G. The orientation of the nucleotide base pairs is also seen to adjust as an inversion of the nominal position of the nucleobases to a dimer configuration presented via TBP transcription factor. The developments comprise a new approach to characterizing the initiation of the transcription process comprising the direct binding and interaction of ligands with DNA nucleotides as verified through comparative analysis of pharmacological activity and through perfect structural correspondence between the steroid hormone class as ligands with Watson-Crick DNA nucleotide pairings.