Subacute effects of the thiodicarb pesticide on target organs of male wistar rats: biochemical, histological, and flow cytometry studies

Thiodicarb, a carbamate pesticide widely used on crops, may pose several environmental and health concerns. This study aimed to explore its toxicological profile on male rats using hematological, biochemical, histopathological, and flow cytometry markers. Exposed animals were dosed daily at 10, 20, or 40 mg/kg/body weight (group A, B, and C, respectively) during 30 d. No significant changes were observed in hematological parameters among all groups. After 10 d, a decrease of total cholesterol levels was noted in rats exposed to 40 mg/kg. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity increased (group A at 20 d; groups A and B at 30 d) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (group B at 30 d) activity significantly reduced. At 30 d a decrease of some of the other evaluated parameters was observed with total cholesterol and urea levels in group A as well as total protein and creatinine levels in groups A and B. Histological results demonstrated multi-organ dose-related damage in thiodicarb-exposed animals, evidenced as hemorrhagic and diffuse vacuolation in hepatic tissue; renal histology showed disorganized glomeruli and tubular cell degeneration; spleen was ruptured with white pulp and clusters of iron deposits within red pulp; significant cellular loss was noted at the cortex of thymus; and degenerative changes were observed within testis. The histopathologic alterations were most prominent in the high-dose group. Concerning flow cytometry studies, an increase of lymphocyte number, especially T lymphocytes, was seen in blood samples from animals exposed to the highest dose. Taken together, these results indicate marked systemic organ toxicity in rats after subacute exposure to thiodicarb.

Novel Prostate Specific Antigen plastic antibody designed withcharged binding sites for an improved protein binding and itsapplication in a biosensor of potentiometric transduction

This work shows that the synthesis of protein plastic antibodies tailored with selected charged monomersaround the binding site enhances protein binding. These charged receptor sites are placed over a neutralpolymeric matrix, thus inducing a suitable orientation the protein reception to its site. This is confirmed bypreparing control materials with neutral monomers and also with non-imprinted template. This concepthas been applied here to Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA), the protein of choice for screening prostate can-cer throughout the population, with serum levels >10 ng/mL pointing out a high probability of associatedcancer.Protein Imprinted Materials with charged binding sites (C/PIM) have been produced by surfaceimprinting over graphene layers to which the protein was first covalently attached. Vinylben-zyl(trimethylammonium chloride) and vinyl benzoate were introduced as charged monomers labellingthe binding site and were allowed to self-organize around the protein. The subsequent polymerizationwas made by radical polymerization of vinylbenzene. Neutral PIM (N/PIM) prepared without orientedcharges and non imprinted materials (NIM) obtained without template were used as controls.These materials were used to develop simple and inexpensive potentiometric sensor for PSA. Theywere included as ionophores in plasticized PVC membranes, and tested over electrodes of solid or liq-uid conductive contacts, made of conductive carbon over a syringe or of inner reference solution overmicropipette tips. The electrodes with charged monomers showed a more stable and sensitive response,with an average slope of -44.2 mV/decade and a detection limit of 5.8 × 10−11mol/L (2 ng/mL). The cor-responding non-imprinted sensors showed lower sensitivity, with average slopes of -24.8 mV/decade.The best sensors were successfully applied to the analysis of serum, with recoveries ranging from 96.9to 106.1% and relative errors of 6.8%.

Nanoparticles based Permeable Reactive Barriers as an Eco-efficient Technology for nitrate remediation in soil and groundwater

The need to increase agricultural yield led, among others, to an increase in the consumption of nitrogen based fertilizers. As a consequence, there are excessive concentrations of nitrates, the most abundant of the reactive nitrogen (Nr) species, in several areas of the world. The demographic changes and projected population growth for the next decades, and the economic shifts which are already shaping the near future are powerful drivers for a further intensification in the use of fertilizers, with a predicted increase of the nitrogen loads in soils. Nitrate easily diffuses in the subsurface environments, portraying high mobility in soils. Moreover, the presence of high nitrate loads in water has the potential to cause an array of health dysfunctions, such as methemoglobinemia and several cancers. Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRB) placed strategically relatively to the nitrate source constitute an effective technology to tackle nitrate pollution. Ergo, PRB avoid various adverse impacts resulting from the displacement of reactive nitrogen downstream along water bodies. A four stages literature review was carried out in 34 databases. Initially, a set of pertinent key words were identified to perform the initial databases searches. Then, the synonyms of those initial key words were used to carry out a second set of databases searches. The third stage comprised the identification of other additional relevant terms from the research papers identified in the previous two stages. Again, databases searches were performed with this third set of key words. The final step consisted of the identification of relevant papers from the bibliography of the relevant papers identified in the previous three stages of the literature review process. The set of papers identified as relevant for in-depth analysis were assessed considering a set of relevant characterization variables.

The role of functional polymorphisms in immune response genes as biomarkers of BCG Immunotherapy outcome in bladder cancer: Establishment of a predictive profile in a Southern Europe population

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the predictive value of genetic polymorphisms in the context of BCG immunotherapy outcome and create a predictive profile that may allow discriminating the risk of recurrence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In a dataset of 204 patients treated with BCG, we evaluate 42 genetic polymorphisms in 38 genes involved in the BCG mechanism of action, using Sequenom MassARRAY technology. Stepwise multivariate Cox Regression was used for data mining. RESULTS: In agreement with previous studies we observed that gender, age, tumor multiplicity and treatment scheme were associated with BCG failure. Using stepwise multivariate Cox Regression analysis we propose the first predictive profile of BCG immunotherapy outcome and a risk score based on polymorphisms in immune system molecules (SNPs in TNFA-1031T/C (rs1799964), IL2RA rs2104286 T/C, IL17A-197G/A (rs2275913), IL17RA-809A/G (rs4819554), IL18R1 rs3771171 T/C, ICAM1 K469E (rs5498), FASL-844T/C (rs763110) and TRAILR1-397T/G (rs79037040) in association with clinicopathological variables. This risk score allows the categorization of patients into risk groups: patients within the Low Risk group have a 90% chance of successful treatment, whereas patients in the High Risk group present 75% chance of recurrence after BCG treatment. CONCLUSION: We have established the first predictive score of BCG immunotherapy outcome combining clinicopathological characteristics and a panel of genetic polymorphisms. Further studies using an independent cohort are warranted. Moreover, the inclusion of other biomarkers may help to improve the proposed model.

A high performance wireless fieldbus in industrial multimedia-related environment

This paper summarises the most important solutions that have emerged from the work carried out by our team within the framework of the EU (IST-1999-11316) project RFieldbus - High Performance Wireless Fieldbus in Industrial Multimedia-Related Environment. Within this project, Profibus was chosen as the fieldbus platform. Essentially, extensions to the current Profibus standard are being developed in order to provide Profibus with wireless, mobility and industrialmultimedia capabilities. In fact, providing these extensions means fulfilling strong requirements, namely to encompass the communication between wired (currently available) and wireless/mobile devices and to support real-time control traffic and multimedia traffic in the same network.