Wheelerholmgaard0782

Blood-accessible molecular biomarkers are becoming highly attractive tools to assess disease progression and response to therapies in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) especially in very young patients for whom other outcome measures remain subjective and challenging. In this study, we have standardized a highly specific and reproducible multiplexing mass spectrometry method using the tandem mass tag (TMT) strategy in combination with depletion of abundant proteins from serum and high-pH reversed-phase peptide fractionation. Differential proteome profiling of 4 year-old DMD boys (n = 9) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 9) identified 38 elevated and 50 decreased serum proteins (adjusted P less then 0.05, FDR less then 0.05) in the DMD group relative to the healthy control group. As expected, we confirmed previously reported biomarkers but also identified novel biomarkers. These included novel muscle injury-associated biomarkers such as telethonin, smoothelin-like protein 1, cofilin-1, and plectin, additional muscle-specific enzymes such as UTP-glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, pyruvate kinase PKM, lactotransferrin, tissue alpha-l-fucosidase, pantetheinase, and ficolin-1, and some pro-inflammatory and cell adhesion-associated biomarkers such as leukosialin, macrophage receptor MARCO, vitronectin, galectin-3-binding protein, and ProSAAS. The workflow including serum depletion, sample processing, and mass spectrometry analysis was found to be reproducible and stable over time with CV less then 20%. Furthermore, the method was found to be superior in terms of specificity compared to other multiplexing affinity-based methods. These findings demonstrate the specificity and reliability of TMT-based mass spectrometry methods in detection and identification of serum biomarkers in presymptomatic young DMD patients.Photoetching of n-type silicon induces a photoluminescent (PL) layer containing nanocrystals on the irradiated surface, usually through band gap absorption (wavelength less then 1100 nm). Here, we demonstrate the formation of a PL layer restricted to the backside surface, not the irradiated surface, by using a 1064 nm NdYAG laser. A nanoscale structure of the PL layer is achieved by merely modifying the electrolyte concentration without adding oxidants. To illustrate the working principle, we submit the hypothesis of a quasi-pn structure based on the theory of a quasi-Fermi level. Because of the "injection current" effect due to the quasi-pn structure, the hole current promoted by free-carrier absorption flows toward the backside surface, leading to anodization. This result is remarkable because anodization of n-type silicon is very hard to achieve with just an etchant in the dark.Recent advances in MXenes with high carrier mobility show great application prospects in the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) field. However, challenges remain regarding the improvement of the SERS sensitivity. Herein, an effective strategy considering charge-transfer resonance for semiconductor-based substrates is presented to optimize the SERS sensitivity with the guidance of the density functional theory calculation. The theoretical calculation predicted that the excellent SERS enhancement for methylene blue (MeB) on Ti3C2 MXene can be excited by both 633 and 785 nm lasers, and the Raman enhanced effect is mainly originated from the charge-transfer resonance enhancement. In this work, the Ti3C2 MXenes exhibit an excellent SERS sensitivity with an enhancement factor of 2.9 × 106 and a low detection limit of 10-7 M for MeB molecules. Furthermore, the SERS enhancement of Ti3C2 and Au-Ti3C2 substrates exhibit higher selectivity on different molecules, which contributes to the detection of target molecules in complex solution environments. This work can provide some theoretical and experimental basis for the research on SERS activity of other MXene materials.Electrospinning produces nanofibrous scaffolds with potential for tissue engineering and wound repair. Spinning parameters control scaffold morphology and properties. BioPEGylation of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) introduces terminal hydrophilic groups into the hydrophobic chain, making this natural-synthetic hybrid copolymer more susceptible to humidity. Varying the humidity from 10 to 50% RH during electrospinning had a relatively little effect on polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) average fiber and pore diameters, which remained around 3.0 and 8.7 μm, respectively. In contrast, fiber and pore diameters for electrospun bioPEGylated PHB scaffolds varied significantly with humidity, peaking at 30% RH (5.5 and 14.1 μm, respectively). While scaffolds showed little change, hydrophobicity decreased linearly with humidity during electrospinning. Compared to solvent-cast films, electrospun scaffolds showed significantly greater average cell spread. A 108% increase for olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) cultivated on bioPEGylated PHB scaffolds was proportionally greater than their counterparts on electrospun PHB scaffolds, (70%). OECS grown on BioPEGylated PHB scaffolds were over twice the size, 260 ± 20 μm diameter, than those on PHB electrospun scaffolds, 110 ± 18 μm diameter. Electrospun scaffolds also promoted cell health compared to their solvent-cast counterparts, with increases in the mitochondrial activity of 165 ± 13 and 196 ± 13% for PHB and bioPEGylated PHB, respectively. Selleckchem Itacnosertib OECS cultivated on electrospun scaffolds of bioPEGylated PHB had significantly better membrane integrities compared to their counterparts on solvent-cast films, 47 ± 5% reducing to 17 ± 6%. The combination of bioPEGylation and humidity during electrospinning permitted significant controllable changes to scaffold morphology and properties. These changes resulted in the significantly greater promotion of cell growth on electrospun bioPEGylated PHB scaffolds compared to their solvent-cast counterparts and electrospun PHB.Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are complex molecules produced by the thermal decomposition of organic matter in anthropogenic activities. Novel composites with enhanced physicochemical properties aim to overcome limitations such as adsorption capacity, affinity, and stability for PAHs adsorption. Composites based on chitosan are promising due to the good biocompatibility and adsorption properties. This study focuses on the facile preparation of chitosan beads modified with iron oxide (FeO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles via ionic cross-linking (Ch-FeO/TiO2). FeO and TiO2 were synthesized performing co-precipitation and green chemistry methods, respectively. The characterization evidenced the formation of Ch-FeO/TiO2 with good crystallinity, excellent thermal stability, and superparamagnetic response, attributed to the presence of FeO and TiO2 nanoparticles. High thermal stability up to 270 °C was related to the cross-linked chitosan network. The enhanced adsorption mechanism of Ch-FeO/TiO2 was determined by removing naphthalene from water and seawater samples.