Firefighters are daily exposed to adverse health-hazardous pollutants. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), well known endocrine disruptors with carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic ...properties, are among the most relevant pollutants. The characterization of firefighters' occupational exposure to airborne PAHs remains limited; information is scarce for European firefighters. Also, the in vitro assessment of firefighters' respiratory health risks is inexistent. To reply to these scientific gaps, this work characterizes the levels of gaseous PAH in firefighters' personal air during regular working activities at controlled forest fires and at fire stations (control group). Breathable levels were 2.2-26.7 times higher during fire events than in the control group (2.63-32.63 μg/m3versus 1.22 μg/m3, p < 0.001); the available occupational guidelines (100 and 200 μg/m3 defined by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the North American Occupational Safety and Health Administration, respectively) were not exceeded. Concentrations of (possible/probable) carcinogenic PAHs were 1.9-15.3 times superior during firefighting (p < 0.001). Increased values of total benzo(a)pyrene equivalents (p = 0.101), dose rates (p < 0.001), and carcinogenic risks (p = 0.063) were estimated in firefighters during controlled fires comparatively with the control group. Firefighters' breathable gaseous phase collected during fire events contributed to induce a significant viability decrease (<70 %; p < 0.05) in A549 and Calu-3 cell lines. The principal component analysis (PCA) allowed the differentiation between firefighters participating in controlled fire events from the control group. PCA analysis demonstrated the potential of PAHs to distinguish different sources of firefighters´ occupational exposure and of combining estimated health risk parameters with in vitro toxicities determined with human-breathable air collected during real-life scenarios. Overall, the participation in controlled fire events contributes to the respiratory health burden of firefighting forces. However, more studies are needed to corroborate these preliminary findings, explore the respiratory toxicological mechanisms, and support the implementation of preventive actions and mitigation strategies to pursue firefighters' health.
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The conventional deposition/drying procedure results in the formation of cationic polymer coatings on glass slides that are capable of binding bacterial and yeast cells. A ...three-minute water treatment removes up to 80% of cells from the surface, and both the removed and remaining cells are dead. The results obtained clarify the mechanism of the biocidal action of adsorbed layers of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and the protocol for quantifying their biocidal activity.
The development of effective anticancer strategies and the improvement of our understanding of cancer need analytical tools. Utilizing a variety of analytical approaches while investigating ...anti-cancer medicines gives us a thorough understanding of the traits and mechanisms concerned to cancer cells, which enables us to develop potent treatments to combat them. The importance of anticancer research may be attributed to various analytical techniques that contributes to the identification of therapeutic targets and the assessment of medication efficacy, which are crucial things in expanding our understanding of cancer biology. The study looks at methods that are often used in cancer research, including cell viability assays, clonogenic assay, flow cytometry, 2D electrophoresis, microarray, immunofluorescence, western blot caspase activation assay, bioinformatics, etc. The fundamentals, applications, and how each technique analytical advances our understanding of cancer are briefly reviewed.
Boldiplatin, a novel oxaliplatin analogue, was synthesized from the platinum(II) precursor K2PtCl4 and the boldine derivate 3-carboxipredicentrine. The in vitro cell viability assays demonstrate that ...both compounds exhibit the same activity over four distinct human tumor cell lines, and that boldiplatin shows less toxicity over a non-tumor cell line. Display omitted
► A platinum complex, using a boldine derivative as ligand, was synthesized. ► Boldiplatin exhibits similar biological activity than oxaliplatin. ► Boldiplatin has greater selectivity for some cancer cell lines than oxaliplatin.
A novel oxaliplatin analogue, Pt((1R,2R)-diaminocyclohexane)(3-carboxypredicentrinato), boldiplatin, has been synthesized by the coordination of the boldine derivative 3-carboxypredicentrinate to the corresponding platinum(II) moiety in 5.8% overall yield. The complex was fully characterized and biologically evaluated in vitro. Boldiplatin was compared with its parent drug oxaliplatin, showing equal activity over four human tumor cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, PC-3 and HT-29) and a tenfold decrease in toxicity over a non-tumor cell line (DHF). This selectivity makes boldiplatin a good candidate for further evaluations to assess its potential as antitumor drug.
Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) and human respiratory syncytial (RSV) virus cause mild to severe infections of the respiratory tract in all age groups. So far, several cell lines derived from ...respiratory tissues have been identified to support replication of both viruses. Unfortunately, titers attained during replication differ between the both viruses within one cell line despite equal infection conditions, on the one hand giving raise to the assumption that the individual susceptibility may vary in dependence of the virus, and, on the other hand, making it difficult to compare results between both viruses. Low titers may cause problems in experiments such as animal trials, in which high titers in low volumes are a prerequisite for successful experiments. The advantages are described of the use of a human cell line (normally used for hepatitis viruses research) susceptible for RSV and hMPV in which both viruses replicate to comparable and high titers. It is also shown that the cell line can also be used for applications such as cell viability tests. Cell viability tests can be used as reciprocal determination tests of viral titers and therefore offer the opportunity to replace classical virological tests such as TCID
50. The cell line can be also used for high throughput applications like drug screening, making it a useful tool for screening for antiviral compound active against RSV and hMPV.
Previously, it was found that 5-(3-chlorophenyl)-4-hexyl-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thione (TP-315) effectively protects mice from maximal electroshock-induced seizures. The aim of this study ...was to determine possible interactions between TP-315 and different molecular targets, i.e. GABAA receptors, voltage-gated sodium channels, and human neuronal α7 and α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The influence of TP-315 on the viability of human hepatic HepG2 cells was also established using PrestoBlue and ToxiLight assays. It was found that the anticonvulsant activity of TP-315 results (at least partially) from its influence on voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs). Moreover, the title compound slightly affected the viability of human hepatic cells.
Results of rapid cell viability assays were experimentally compared in order to reveal the most suitable test for in vitro investigations of the combination of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with ...chemotherapeutic drugs.
meso-Tetra(3-hydroxyphenyl)-chlorin (m-THPC) accumulating in cell membranes and
meso-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphin (TPPS
4) accumulating in lysosomes were used as photosensitisers. Doxorubicin that localises, mainly, to nucleus and vincristine that binds to microtubules were used as cytostatic drugs. Two adherent rodent cell lines, baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) and murine hepatoma (MH-22A), were used to examine the contribution of a cell. We tested cytotoxicity assays of the main groups of fast (non-clonogenic) methods of cell viability measuring. Plasma membrane integrity was estimated by trypan blue exclusion and LDH leakage, metabolic activity was tested by
3H-thymidine incorporation and MTT assay, loss of monolayer adherence was measured by staining with crystal violet and CyQUANT. The most sensitive test in each case was the assay related to the site of the direct damage, and measurement of the loss of monolayer adherence proved to be as sensitive assay as the damage-specific one. All the assays applied, except for the LDH release, revealed a higher effect of combination of m-THPC-mediated phototreatment and doxorubicin compared to either of the single treatments.
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