Relationship between local and systemic inflammatory response and prognosis in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is the most frequently seen head and neck malignancy. Despite improvements in the treatment modalities within the last 20 years, the desired improvement in survival outcomes has not been achieved yet which led researchers to investigate factors that might affect prognosis in LSCCs. METHODS: A total of 116 previously operated patients were included in this study. To assess systemic inflammation, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were calculated. The cut-off values for NLR and PLR were accepted as 2.79 and 112, respectively. To evaluate intratumoral inflammation, hematoxylin-eosin stained tumor sections were evaluated. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) densities in the tumor area were scored as 1+, 2+ and 3+. RESULTS: The mean overall survival was 29.5±17.7 months. In univariate analysis, a statistically significant correlation was seen between age group of 60 years, tumor stage, site and OS (p=0.025, p=0.026, p=0.029). There was no statistically significant relationship between PLR, NLR and TIL density and OS. In the multivariate analysis, the 60-year-old group and tumour stage were still significantly associated with the OS (p=0.033, p=0.046). CONCLUSION: Age and tumor stage were significantly associated with survival in our study, but contrary to the literature, no correlation was found between local and systemic inflammatory response.

Simultaneous quantification of Myelin Basic Protein and Tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid and serum of Multiple Sclerosis patients using nanoimmunosensor.

This study was aimed at the development of an immunosensor for the simultaneous quantification of Myelin Basic Protein (MBP) and Tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum, obtained from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. The newly developed GO/pPG/anti-MBP/anti-Tau nanoimmunosensor has been established by immobilization of MBP and Tau antibodies. The newly developed nanoimmunosensor was tested, optimized and characterized using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The developed nanoimmunosensor was seen to have detection limits of 0.30nM for MBP and 0.15nM for Tau proteins which were sufficient for the levels to be analysed in neuro-clinic. The clinical study performed using CSF and serum of MS patients showed that the designed nanoimmunosensor was capable of detecting the proteins properly, that were essentially proven by ELISA.

Sonochemical green synthesis of Ag/graphene nanocomposite.

Recently, the popularity for green chemistry and chemical process have increased. The approach must comprehensively be considered for these principles in the design of a synthesis method, chemical analysis, or chemical process. Utilization of nontoxic chemicals, environment friendly solvents, and renewable materials are some of the important issues in green synthesis methods. The importance of green synthesis arises in the production of Ag/graphene nanocomposites, due to their future potential applications in nanomedicine and materials engineering. Herein, a simple approach to synthesizing Ag/graphene nanocomposite using sodium citrate as the reducing agent by sonochemical method has been reported. The synthesized Ag/graphene nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The results showed that graphene oxide was successfully reduced to graphene and silver ions to silver nanoparticles with sodium citrate. Spherical Ag nanoparticles with a mean particle size of approximately 20nm on graphene sheets were synthesized sonochemically. The use of sodium citrate as an environment-friendly reducing agent provided green attributes whereas the use of sonochemical processes as the synthesis method provided economic attributes to this study. The results obtained demonstrate this method to be applicable to the synthesis of other metals on graphene sheets and may possibly find various forthcoming medicinal, industrial and technological applications.

An extended defect in graphene as a metallic wire.

Many proposed applications of graphene require the ability to tune its electronic structure at the nanoscale. Although charge transfer and field-effect doping can be applied to manipulate charge carrier concentrations, using them to achieve nanoscale control remains a challenge. An alternative approach is 'self-doping', in which extended defects are introduced into the graphene lattice. The controlled engineering of these defects represents a viable approach to creation and nanoscale control of one-dimensional charge distributions with widths of several atoms. However, the only experimentally realized extended defects so far have been the edges of graphene nanoribbons, which show dangling bonds that make them chemically unstable. Here, we report the realization of a one-dimensional topological defect in graphene, containing octagonal and pentagonal sp(2)-hybridized carbon rings embedded in a perfect graphene sheet. By doping the surrounding graphene lattice, the defect acts as a quasi-one-dimensional metallic wire. Such wires may form building blocks for atomic-scale, all-carbon electronics.