3,134 publications from this institution
Abstract In this minireview, we summarize current research dealing with the combination of noble‐metal nanoparticles and different families of supramolecular macrocycles (cyclodextrins, cucurbit[ n ]urils, calixarenes, and pillar[ n ]arenes). We intended to select relevant publications on the synthesis of noble‐metal nanoparticles with macrocycles acting as capping agents or/and reducing agents, as well as on the post‐synthetic metal‐nanoparticle modification with macrocycles. We also discuss strategies in which supramolecular chemistry is applied to direct the self‐assembly of nanoparticles and formation of polymer composites. We finally describe the main applications of these materials in various fields.
Calvo, C; Hermida, R C; Ayala, D E; Dominguez, M J; Covelo, M; Mojon, A; Fernandez, J R; Lopez, J EAuthor Information
Boosting or suppressing our immune system represents an attractive adjunct in the treatment of infections including SARS-CoV-2, cancer, AIDS, malnutrition, age related problems and some inflammatory disorders. Thus, there has been a growing interest in exploring and developing novel drugs, natural or synthetic, that can manipulate our defence mechanism. Many of such studies, reported till date, have been designed to explore effect of the therapeutic on function of macrophages, being a key component in innate immune system. Indeed, RAW264.7, J774A.1, THP-1 and U937 cell lines act as ideal model systems for preliminary investigation and selection of dose for in vivo studies. Several bioassays have been standardized so far where many techniques require high throughput instruments, cost effective reagents and technical assistance that may hinder many scholars to perform a method demanding compilation of available protocols. In this review, we have taken an attempt for the first time to congregate commonly used in vitro immune-modulating techniques explaining their principles. The study detected that among about 40 different assays and more than 150 sets of primers, the methods of cell proliferation by MTT, phagocytosis by neutral red, NO detection by Griess reaction and estimation of expression of TLRs, COX-2, iNOS, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β by PCR have been the most widely used to screen the therapeutics under investigation.
Objectives: In hypertensive patients, the correlation between the blood pressure (BP) level and target organ damage, cardiovascular risk, and long-term prognosis is higher for ambulatory (ABPM) than for clinical measurements. We investigated the influence of ABPM on therapeutic decision-making in hypertensive subjects participating in the Hygia Project, designed to evaluate prospectively cardiovascular risk by ABPM in primary care centers of Northwest Spain. Methods: We evaluated 1671 hypertensive subjects (874 men), 61.8 ± 12.6 years of age. BP was measured every 20-min from 07:00 to 23:00 h and every 30-min at night for 48 h. The physicians registered via web the clinical information for each patient, including anthropometric variables; factors influencing prognosis (family history, diabetes, subclinical organ damage, established cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or renal disease); current treatment; analytical parameters; and clinic BP (three measurements). The physicians provided the therapeutic strategy for each patient based on all this clinical information but before having access to the data from ABPM, and once again after visualizing the ABPM report. Results: After using the ABPM report, the therapeutic scheme was changed in 1033 (62%) subjects. The most prevalent change was the timing of antihypertensive treatment (81% of the cases), giving priority to treatment at bedtime. Among those who changed their therapeutic scheme, 20% moved from no-treatment to treatment of some kind, and 10% from treatment to no-treatment. Among the 279 subjects with changed scheme where the number and class of medications was unchanged, 27% increased the dose, 24% decreased the dose, and 49% changed dosing-time, mainly increasing treatment at bedtime. Conclusions: This prospective blind study is the first to investigate the impact of ABPM on therapeutic decision-making. While discrepancies in diagnosis of hypertension between clinic and ambulatory BP measurements (isolated office and masked hypertension) account for just about 25% of the population, almost two-thirds of the patients in this study had their therapeutic scheme changed on the basis of ABPM. This study indicates that ABPM should be required for therapeutic decision-making in hypertension.
Abstract — — To recognize the highly statistically significant circadian variability of blood pressure in pregnancy is to admit that the diagnosis of gestational hypertension or preeclampsia should be based not just on whether a casual blood pressure value is too high or too low, but rather on more pertinent questions: How long is blood pressure elevated above a given time-varying threshold? What is the excess blood pressure? When does most of the excess occur? Answers to these questions may be obtained by establishing (1) an adequate reference threshold for blood pressure and (2) a proper measurement of blood pressure elevation. Accordingly, we derived time-specified reference standards for blood pressure as a function of gestational age. We analyzed 1408 blood pressure series systematically sampled by ambulatory monitoring for 48 consecutive hours every 4 weeks from the first obstetric visit (usually within the first trimester of pregnancy) until delivery in 235 women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Data from each blood pressure series were synchronized according to the rest-activity cycle of each individual to avoid differences among women in actual times of daily activity. Data were then used to compute 90% circadian tolerance intervals for each trimester of pregnancy, in keeping with the trends in blood pressure along gestation previously documented. The method, derived on the basis of bootstrap techniques, does not need to assume normality or symmetry in the data, and therefore, it is highly appropriate to describe the circadian pattern of blood pressure variability. Results not only reflect expected changes in the tolerance limits as a function of gestational age, but also upper limits markedly below the thresholds currently used for diagnosing hypertension in pregnancy. The use of these time-qualified tolerance limits for the computation of a hyperbaric index as a measure of BP excess has already been show to provide high sensitivity and specificity in the early identification of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia.
Objective This study evaluated the diagnostic value of different combinations of five commonly used tumour markers and screened the best combination of tumour markers. Methods Regression analysis was used to evaluate 185 patients with suspected breast cancer admitted to Mianyang Central Hospital from January 2020 to December 2021. The differences of five tumour markers between a breast cancer group and a benign lesion group were analysed. The sensitivity and specificity of five tumour markers were compared. Results Of 185 patients with suspected breast cancer, 108 patients had breast cancer and 77 patients had benign breast tumours. The detection results of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), alpha fetoprotein (AFP), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) and carbohydrate antigen 153 (CA153) in patients with breast cancer were significantly higher than those in patients with benign breast tumours. In the analysis of the single-detection results of tumour markers, CEA had the highest sensitivity (23.94%), CA153 had the highest specificity (96.43%), AFP had the highest accuracy (47.66%) and CA153 had the highest area under the curve (AUC) value (0.727). With the increase of parallel indicators, the sensitivity, accuracy and AUC value increased in turn, and the increase was obvious in the front. The increase began to slow down after the three parallel indicators. Among the different combinations of three parallel detections of breast cancer tumour markers, the highest sensitivity was AFP + CEA + CA153 (83.46%), the highest accuracy was AFP + CEA + CA153 and AFP + CA153 + CA125 (80.25%), and the highest AUC was CEA + CA125 + CA199 (0.922). Conclusion AFP, CA153 and CA199 are recommended for clinical diagnosis of breast cancer. In routine physical examination and early breast cancer screening, the optimal combination of AFP + CEA + CA153 three parallel tests is recommended.
