Quantification of COX-2 Level in Alzheimer's Disease Patients to Develop Potential Blood-Based Biomarker for Early Diagnosis and Therapeutic Target.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and symptoms develop gradually over many years. The current direction for medication development in AD is focused on neuro-inflammation and oxidative stress. Amyloid-ß (Aß) deposition activates microglia leading to neuro-inflammation and neurodegeneration induced by activation of COX-2 via NFκB p50 in glioblastoma cells. Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the concentration of COX-2 and NFκB p50 in serum of AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and geriatric control (GC) and to establish a blood-based biomarker for early diagnosis and its therapeutic implications. Methods: Proteins and their mRNA level in blood of study groups were measured by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), respectively. The level of protein was further validated by western blot. The binding study of designed peptide against COX-2 by molecular docking was verified by SPR. The rescue of neurotoxicity by peptide was also checked by MTT assay on SH-SY5Y cells (neuroblastoma cell line). Results: Proteins and mRNA were highly expressed in AD and MCI compared to GC. However, COX-2 decreases with disease duration. The peptide showed binding affinity with COX-2 with low dissociation constant in SPR and rescued the neurotoxicity of SH-SY5Y cells by decreasing the level of Aß, tau, and pTau proteins. Conclusions: It can be concluded that COX-2 protein can serve as a potential blood-based biomarker for early detection and can be a good platform for therapeutic intervention for AD.

Surface plasmon resonance based-optical biosensor: Emerging diagnostic tool for early detection of diseases.

The development of diagnostic tools remains at the center of the health care system. In recent times optical biosensors have been widely applied in the scientific community, especially for monitoring protein-protein or nucleic acid hybridization interactions. Optical biosensors-derived surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology has appeared as a revolutionary technology at the current times. This review focuses on the research work in molecular biomarker evaluation using the technique based on SPR for translational clinical diagnosis. The review has covered both communicable and noncommunicable diseases by using different bio-fluids of the patient's sample for diagnosis of the diseases. An increasing number of SPR approaches have been developed in healthcare research and fundamental biological studies. The utility of SPR in the area of biosensing basically lies in its noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic feature due to its label-free high sensitivity and specificity properties. This makes SPR an invaluable tool with precise application in the recognition of different stages of the disease.

Alveolar Arterial Gradient and Respiratory Index in Predicting the Outcome of COVID-19 Patients; a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: Alveolar arterial (A-a) oxygen gradient and respiratory index can be of immense help for the critical care physician in clinical decision making. This study aimed to evaluate the potential application of A-a oxygen gradient and respiratory index in predicting the survival of COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU). Method: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study involving 215 adult patients with COVID-19 disease, admitted to the ICU between 1st April 2020 and 30 June 2021. Details regarding demographic variables, comorbidities, laboratory and arterial blood gas (ABG) findings were recorded. Alveolar-arterial gradient and respiratory index were calculated and tested as predictors of survival. Result: The mean age of the patients was 51.92 years (65.6 % male). Hypertension was the most common comorbidity and oxygen via non-rebreathing mask was the most common modality used at the time of ICU admission. Mortality was 28.37% and average length of stay was 12.84 days. Patients who died were older (p=0.02), mostly male (p=0.017), had at least one comorbidity (p<0.001), and higher heart rate and respiratory rate (<0.001 and p=0.03, respectively), lower pH on arterial blood gas (ABG) (p=0.002), higher FiO2 requirement (p<0.001), and increased A-a oxygen gradient on admission compared to survivors. According to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, A-a oxygen gradient and respiratory index were not sensitive or specific in predicting mortality in the studied patient subset. Conclusion: A-a oxygen gradient and respiratory index calculated at time of admission to ICU in patients with COVID-19 were poor predictors of survival.