Search results for "GOLD"
showing 10 items of 1320 documents
Electrochemical Quantification of H2O2 Released by Airway Cells Growing in Different Culture Media
2022
Quantification of oxidative stress is a challenging task that can help in monitoring chronic inflammatory respiratory airway diseases. Different studies can be found in the literature regarding the development of electrochemical sensors for H2O2 in cell culture medium to quantify oxidative stress. However, there are very limited data regarding the impact of the cell culture medium on the electrochemical quantification of H2O2. In this work, we studied the effect of different media (RPMI, MEM, DMEM, Ham’s F12 and BEGM/DMEM) on the electrochemical quantification of H2O2. The used electrode is based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and was obtained by co-electrode…
Cerebrospinal Fluid Analysis in Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis: An Update
2019
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with brain neurodegeneration. MS patients present heterogeneous clinical manifestations in which both genetic and environmental factors are involved. The diagnosis is very complex due to the high heterogeneity of the pathophysiology of the disease. The diagnostic criteria have been modified several times over the years. Basically, they include clinical symptoms, presence of typical lesions detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and laboratory findings. The analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) allows an evaluation of inflammatory processes circumscribed to the CNS and reflects chan…
Spatial structure of helminth communities in the golden grey mullet, Liza aurata (Actinopterygii: Mugilidae), from the Western Mediterranean.
2012
Ecological investigations regarding the parasite fauna of grey mullets are scarce. The present study provides a detailed description of the helminth communities of Liza aurata in the Spanish western Mediterranean and analyzes the role of spatial, temporal, and host variables in shaping the infracommunities. In total, 204 fish were collected in 2 localities, situated ca. 290 km apart, in spring and fall of 2004 and 2005. A non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to visualize an ordination of the infracommunities according to their relative similarities in parasite abundances. The relationship between infracommunity composition and explanatory variables (host size, locality, year,…
Hierarchical Structuring in Block Copolymer Nanocomposites through Two Phase-Separation Processes Operating on Different Time Scales
2013
Tailoring the size and surface chemistry of nanoparticles allows one to control their position in a block copolymer, but this is usually limited to one-dimensional distribution across domains. Here, the hierarchical assembly of poly(ethylene oxide)-stabilized gold nanoparticles (Au-PEO) into hexagonally packed clusters inside mesostructured ultrathin films of polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) is described. A close examination of the structural evolution at different nanoparticle filling fractions and PEO ligand molecular weights suggests that the mechanism leading to this structure-within-structure is the existence of two phase separation processes operating on differe…
Unzipping Nucleoside Channels by Means of Alcohol Disassembly
2013
Gold nanoparticles capped with simple adenosine derivatives can form colloidal aggregates in nonpolar solvents. Theoretical calculations indicate the formation of organic channels by the supramolecular assembly of the nanoparticles by means of hydrogen bonds between the adenine moieties. The aggregates were only negligibly sensitive to nPrOH, iPrOH, and tBuOH, whereas some showed a similar response to MeOH and EtOH, and others showed high selectivity toward MeOH. DNA nucleoside derivatives (1-(2-deoxy-β-D-ribofuranosyl)-5-methyluracil and 2′,3′-O-isopropylideneadenosine) as well as thymine and other aromatic compounds such as pyrene derivatives (pyrene, 1-chloropyrene, 1-hydroxypyrene, (1-p…
How many gold atoms make gold metal?
2015
It is well known that a piece of gold is an excellent metal: it conducts heat and electricity, it is malleable to work out for jewellery or thin coatings, and it has the characteristic golden colour. How do these everyday properties – familiar from our macroscopic world – change when a nanometre-size chunk of gold contains only 100, 200 or 300 atoms? nonPeerReviewed
Auranofin and related heterometallic gold(I)-thiolates as potent inhibitors of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacterial strains.
2014
A series of new heterometallic gold(I) thiolates containing ferrocenyl-phoshines were synthesized. Their antimicrobial properties were studied and compared to that of FDA-approved drug, auranofin (Ridaura), prescribed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. MIC in the order of one digit micromolar were found for most of the compounds against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and CA MRSA strains US300 and US400. Remarkably, auranofin inhibited S. aureus, US300 and US400 in the order of 150-300 nM. This is the first time that the potent inhibitory effect of auranofin on MRSA strains has been described. The effects of a selected heterometallic compound and auranofin were also stu…
Evaluation of the Amplex eazyplex Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Rapid Diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia
2020
ABSTRACT Quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays are the gold standard for diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP). However, they are laborious and require skilled personnel. Therefore, execution outside regular working hours of the molecular biology laboratory is limited. The eazyplex P. jirovecii assay (PJA) uses loop-mediated isothermal amplification for detection of P. jirovecii. It is performed directly with respiratory specimens, without the need for special skills, and delivers a result within 3 to 25 min. The goal of our study was to compare the performance of the eazyplex PJA with that of established P. jirovecii qPCR assays. All archived bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samp…
More than Pneumonia: Distinctive Features of SARS-Cov-2 Infection. From Autopsy Findings to Clinical Implications: A Systematic Review
2020
Despite safety recommendations for the management of corpses with COVID-19 infection and the high number of deaths worldwide, the post-mortem investigation rate is extremely low as well as the scientific contributions describing the pathological features. The first results of post-mortem investigations provided interesting findings and contributed to promoting unexplored therapeutic approaches and new frontiers of research. A systematic review is provided with the aim of summarizing all autopsy studies up to February 2020 in which a complete post-mortem investigation in patients with COVID-19 disease was performed, focusing on histopathological features. We included case reports, case serie…
Toward fast malaria detection by secondary speckle sensing microscopy
2012
Diagnosis of malaria must be rapid, accurate, simple to use, portable and low cost, as suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite recent efforts, the gold standard remains the light microscopy of a stained blood film. This method can detect low parasitemia and identify different species of Plasmodium. However, it is time consuming, it requires well trained microscopist and good instrumentation to minimize misinterpretation, thus the costs are considerable. Moreover, the equipment cannot be easily transported and installed. In this paper we propose a new technique named "secondary speckle sensing microscopy" ((SM)-M-3) based upon extraction of correlation based statistics of s…