The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most critical public health issue in modern history due to its highly infectious and deathly potential, and the limited access to massive, low-cost, and reliable ...testing has significantly worsened the crisis. The recovery and the vaccination of millions of people against COVID-19 have made serological tests highly relevant to identify the presence and levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Due to its advantages, microfluidic-based technologies represent an attractive alternative to the conventional testing methodologies used for these purposes. In this work, we described the development of an automated ELISA on-chip capable of detecting anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in serum samples from COVID-19 patients and vaccinated individuals. The colorimetric reactions were analyzed with a microplate reader. No statistically significant differences were observed when comparing the results of our automated ELISA on-chip against the ones obtained from a traditional ELISA on a microplate. Moreover, we demonstrated that it is possible to carry out the analysis of the colorimetric reaction by performing basic image analysis of photos taken with a smartphone, which constitutes a useful alternative when lacking specialized equipment or a laboratory setting. Our automated ELISA on-chip has the potential to be used in a clinical setting and mitigates some of the burden caused by testing deficiencies.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential of becoming the gold standard marker for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring. However, current methods for its isolation and characterization ...suffer from equipment variability and human operator error that hinder its widespread use. Here we report the design and construction of a fully automated high-throughput fluorescence microscope that enables the imaging and classification of cancer cells that were labeled by immunostaining procedures. An excellent agreement between our machine vision-based approach and a state-of-the-art microscopy equipment was achieved. Our integral approach provides a path for operator-free and robust analysis of cancer cells as a standard clinical practice.
The detection and analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may enable a broad range of cancer-related applications, including the identification of acquired drug resistance during treatments. ...However, the non-scalable fabrication, prolonged sample processing times, and the lack of automation, associated with most of the technologies developed to isolate these rare cells, have impeded their transition into the clinical practice. This work describes a novel membrane-based microfiltration device comprised of a fully automated sample processing unit and a machine-vision-enabled imaging system that allows the efficient isolation and rapid analysis of CTCs from blood. The device performance was characterized using four prostate cancer cell lines, including PC-3, VCaP, DU-145, and LNCaP, obtaining high assay reproducibility and capture efficiencies greater than 93% after processing 7.5 mL blood samples spiked with 100 cancer cells. Cancer cells remained viable after filtration due to the minimal shear stress exerted over cells during the procedure, while the identification of cancer cells by immunostaining was not affected by the number of non-specific events captured on the membrane. We were also able to identify the androgen receptor (AR) point mutation T878A from 7.5 mL blood samples spiked with 50 LNCaP cells using RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing. Finally, CTCs were detected in 8 out of 8 samples from patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer (mean ± SEM = 21 ± 2.957 CTCs/mL, median = 21 CTCs/mL), demonstrating the potential clinical utility of this device.
Objective: Asthma carries a high burden of disease for residents of Puerto Rico. We conducted this study to better understand asthma-related healthcare use and to examine potential asthma triggers.
...Methods: We characterized asthma-related healthcare use in 2013 by demographics, region, and date using outpatient, hospital, and emergency department (ED) insurance claims with a primary diagnostic ICD-9-CM code of 493.XX. We examined environmental asthma triggers, including outdoor allergens (i.e., mold and pollen), particulate pollution, and influenza-like illness. Analyses included descriptive statistics and Poisson time-series regression.
Results: During 2013, there were 550,655 medical asthma claims reported to the Puerto Rico Healthcare Utilization database, representing 148 asthma claims/1,000 persons; 71% of asthma claims were outpatient visits, 19% were hospitalizations, and 10% were ED visits. Females (63%), children aged ≤9 years (77% among children), and adults aged ≥45 years (80% among adults) had the majority of asthma claims. Among health regions, Caguas had the highest asthma claim-rate at 142/1,000 persons (overall health region claim-rate = 108). Environmental exposures varied across the year and demonstrated seasonal patterns. Metro health region regression models showed positive associations between increases in mold and particulate matter <10 microns in diameter (PM
10
) and outpatient asthma claims.
Conclusions: This study provides information about patterns of asthma-related healthcare use across Puerto Rico. Increases in mold and PM
10
were associated with increases in asthma claims. Targeting educational interventions on exposure awareness and reduction techniques, especially to persons with higher asthma-related healthcare use, can support asthma control activities in public health and clinical settings.
The presence of the genetic variants of the steroid 5-alpha reductase 2 enzyme, which is encoded by the
gene, has been associated with an increased risk of developing prostate cancer among certain ...ethnic groups. However, these molecular studies have not been conducted on the Mexican population. The analysis of the genetic variants, rs9282858 and rs523349, was performed in 101 males with prostate cancer and 100 healthy controls classified as males without prostate abnormalities (n=60) and males with benign prostatic hyperplasia (n=40), to identify a probable association with this cancer type in the Northeast Mexican population. An association was identified between prostate cancer and biomass exposure P=0.012; odds ratio (OR), 2.89; confidence interval (CI)=1.21-6.88 and tobacco use (P=0.028; OR=1.88; CI=1.07-3.31), while no association was observed between cancer development and the rs9282858 variant, or between a protective effect and the rs523349 variant. Notably, an association was identified between rs523349 and biomass exposure (P=0.013, OR=3.17; CI=1.23-8.17 for the G risk allele, and OR=0.32, CI=0.12-0.81 for the C protective allele) using the dominant genetic model. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first of its type to investigate the Mexican population with prostate cancer.
Therapy with biopharmaceuticals, mainly recombinant antibodies, offers patients higher life expectancy and better life quality than pharmacologic therapy. Countries with the highest scientific ...development are investing in this kind of therapy, and this is why the optimization of the production of these recombinant proteins would lead to their higher production and lower costs of the final product. Modifications in the use of promoters, the use of recombination regions, and the change in the order of the chains, are some of the genetic engineering changes that can increase the production of recombinant antibodies. In this work, three different promoters were tested: Prom A, hCMV, and EF1-a, for two different antibodies, one anti-TNFa and one anti-CD20+. Changes were made in the order of the chains H-L or L-H and one or two UCOE (ubiquitous chromatin opening element) sequences were also used to identify the combinations that provide the best transient and stable expression for the antibodies in the CHO-s cells. In our results, we observed that the use of the two UCOE regions, with L-H order is almost three times better for the expression of the two different antibodies, while the strength of the promoter is conditioned by the sequence of each expressed protein.
•Proposed use of plasmid with double UCOE region (1.5 and 3.0 kb) for high expression.•Proposed use of order Light-Heavy chain with the use of intermediate IRES region.•The promoter region works differently in each sequence of antibodies.
The Pacific silverstripe halfbeak, Hyporhamphus naos is one of the most commercially important fish species in Mazatlán Bay, north-western Mexico. Irrespective of its relatively small size, it is ...highly appreciated in the local gastronomy Every year between April and May adults congregate to spawn in Mazatlán Bay; however, information about their parasite fauna is lacking. This study reports on the metazoan parasite fauna of H. naos. Thirty individuals were sampled during the 2022 fishing season. Nine parasite taxa were collected, including five species of ectoparasites, that is, the monogeneans Axinoides sp. and Kuhnia sp., the copepods Ergasilus sp. and Lepeophtheirus sp., and the isopod Mothocya gilli Bruce, 1986, and four endoparasites, the nematode Philometra sp., and three metacercariae including the heterophyid Opisthometra planicollis (Rudolphi, 1819), the strigeid Cardiocephaloides medioconiger (Dubois and Vigueras, 1949), and cyathocotylid Mesosteph anus microbursa Caballero, Grocott and Zerecero, 1953. Parasites were identified using morphology, or a combination of morphology and DNA sequences. This study includes new host records for all metazoan parasites collected, except for Philometra sp. which has been previously documented infecting the gonads of H. naos. Philometra sp. was the species with the lowest prevalence (<10%), whereas O. planicollis and C. medioconiger reached the highest prevalence values with 63.3% and 50%, respectively. We discuss the factors that potentially determine the infection parameters of the metazoan parasites in the area, and the potential zoonotic importance of the cyathocotylid M. microbursa.
Prostate cancer (PCa) is a worldwide health issue, because of its high incidence and mortality. Its etiology is complex and includes certain risk factors such as age, hormonal status, ethnic origin ...and family history of PCa. Genetic predisposition is proposed as a major risk factor and there are several controversial reports on the association of PCa and gene polymorphism such as the receptors of the androgen receptor (AR) and the vitamin D (VDR). Objective. To evaluate the CAG triplet repeats in the first exon of the AR and polymorphisms in the restriction site Taql in the VDR in Mexicans with PCa.
A total of 68 Mexicans with histopathological diagnosis of PCa and 48 healthy Mexican with normal prostate-specific antigen and rectal exam where included. 10ml of peripheral blood were extracted to isolate DNA and the polymorphisms were evaluated with specific primers for the AR and VDR.
The allelic and genetic distributions of the AR and VDR polymorphisms were consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and there were no statistical differences between the PCa patients and controls (p > 0.05). However, there was a statistical difference between the number of CAG repeats in younger patients with PCa compared to controls (p = 0.045) but when the young patient group was compared versus the elder group there was not stadistically difference (p = 0.085), but the results showed a tendency towards less repetitions of CAG in elder patients. Concerning the VDR, when we analyzed the patients with PCa and a bad pathological prognosis they had a less frequent genotype of TT (p = 0.03).
Our results suggest an association between the VDR and AR gene polymorphisms, and the histopathological score and age at diagnosis in Mexican patients with PCa, respectively. However, it is important to confirm these results in a larger scale study.
Rabbit meat contains unsaturated fats that are susceptible to oxidation, texture modification and bacterial growth. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of oregano (Oreganum ...vulgare) hydrolate on some quality characteristics of rabbit meat nuggets. Two treatments were designed, a control to which no hydrolate was added, while oregano hydrolate was added to the other. Subsequently, analyses of pH, water activity, antioxidant capacity, color, texture and bacterial groups through storage time were carried out. The results show that there are statistical differences (p<0.05), in pH, hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness; it was also found that the microbial groups increase with storage time (p<0.05), however, there are no differences (p>0.05) on the same day of storage. It is concluded that oregano hydrolate decreases the total counts, staphylococci and enterobacteria; in addition, the uncooked and cooked internal color decreases through the days of storage in the treatment with oregano hydrolate, but the values are similar to the control. In addition, in the treatment with oregano hydrolate, no changes were observed with respect to storage time.
La carne de conejo contiene grasas insaturadas susceptibles a la oxidación, a modificación de su textura y al crecimiento de bacterias. El objetivo del presente estudio es determinar el efecto del hidrolato de orégano (Oreganum vulgare) sobre algunas características de calidad de nuggets de carne de conejo. Se diseñaron dos tratamientos, un control al cual no se añadió hidrolato, mientras que el otro se le añadió hidrolato de orégano. Posteriormente, se realizaron análisis de pH, actividad de agua, capacidad antioxidante, color, textura y grupos de bacterias a través del tiempo de almacenamiento. Los resultados muestran que existen diferencias estadísticas (p<0.05), en pH, dureza, cohesividad, gomosidad y masticabilidad; también se encontró que los grupos microbianos se incrementan con el tiempo de almacenamiento (p<0.05), sin embargo, no existe diferencias (p>0.05) en el mismo día de almacenamiento. El color disminuye en el día 7, pero se incrementa al día 14. Se concluye que el hidrolato de orégano disminuye los conteos totales, estafilococos y enterobacterias; además de que el color tanto sin cocinar como el interno cocido se puede apreciar que disminuye a través de los días de almacenamiento en el tratamiento con hidrolato de orégano, pero los valores son similares al control. Además, en el tratamiento con hidrolato de orégano no se apreciaron cambios con respecto al tiempo de almacenamiento.
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