Differentiation of remitting neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders from multiple sclerosis by integrating parameters from serum proteins and lymphocyte subsets.

Differential diagnosis for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) is always doubtful. To differentiate these diseases, we studied the immune status in the blood of patients with MS (n = 45) or NMOSD (n = 23) at remission phase. Remitting NMOSD patients had increased levels of CXCL13 and memory B cells, while remitting MS patients had elevated levels of galectin-9 and Th1 cells. A diagnostic model with these four variables is built to distinguish remitting NMOSD from MS with a sensitivity of 91.30%. Our diagnostic model may help to improve the differentiation of remitting NMOSD from MS.

Infrared absorption of methanol-water clusters (CH3OH)n(H2O), n = 1-4, recorded with the VUV-ionization/IR-depletion technique.

We recorded infrared (IR) spectra in the CH- and OH-stretching regions of size-selected clusters of methanol (M) with one water molecule (W), represented as MnW, n = 1-4, in a pulsed supersonic jet using the photoionization/IR-depletion technique. Vacuum ultraviolet emission at 118 nm served as the source of ionization in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect clusters MnW as protonated forms Mn-1WH+. The variations in intensities of Mn-1WH+ were monitored as the wavelength of the IR laser light was tuned across the range 2700-3800 cm-1. IR spectra of size-selected clusters were obtained on processing of the observed action spectra of the related cluster-ions according to a mechanism that takes into account the production and loss of each cluster due to IR photodissociation. Spectra of methanol-water clusters in the OH region show significant variations as the number of methanol molecules increases, whereas those in the CH region are similar for all clusters. Scaled harmonic vibrational wavenumbers and relative IR intensities predicted with the M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ method for the methanol-water clusters are consistent with our experimental results. For dimers, absorption bands of a structure WM with H2O as a hydrogen-bond donor were observed at 3570, 3682, and 3722 cm-1, whereas weak bands of MW with methanol as a hydrogen-bond donor were observed at 3611 and 3753 cm-1. For M2W, the free OH band of H2O was observed at 3721 cm-1, whereas a broad feature was deconvoluted to three bands near 3425, 3472, and 3536 cm-1, corresponding to the three hydrogen-bonded OH-stretching modes in a cyclic structure. For M3W, the free OH shifted to 3715 cm-1, and the hydrogen-bonded OH-stretching bands became much broader, with a weak feature near 3179 cm-1 corresponding to the symmetric OH-stretching mode of a cyclic structure. For M4W, the observed spectrum agrees unsatisfactorily with predictions for the most stable cyclic structure, indicating significant contributions from branched isomers, which is distinctly different from M5 of which the cyclic form dominates.

Detailed mechanism of the CH2I + O2 reaction: yield and self-reaction of the simplest Criegee intermediate CH2OO.

The application of a new reaction scheme using CH2I + O2 to generate the simplest Criegee intermediate, CH2OO, has stimulated lively research; the Criegee intermediates are extremely important in atmospheric chemistry. The detailed mechanism of CH2I + O2 is hence important in understanding kinetics involving CH2OO. We employed ultraviolet absorption to probe simultaneously CH2I2, CH2OO, CH2I, and IO in the reaction system of CH2I + O2 upon photolysis at 248 nm of a flowing mixture of CH2I2, O2, and N2 (or SF6) in the pressure range 7.6-779 Torr to investigate the reaction kinetics. With a detailed mechanism to model the observed temporal profiles of CH2I, CH2OO, and IO, we found that various channels of the reaction CH2I + O2 and CH2OO + I play important roles; an additional decomposition channel of CH2I + O2 to form products other than CH2OO or ICH2OO becomes important at pressure less than 60 Torr. The pressure dependence of the derived rate coefficients of various channels of reactions of CH2I + O2 and CH2OO + I has been determined. We derived a rate coefficient also for the self-reaction of CH2OO as k = (8 ± 4) × 10(-11) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1) at 295 K. The yield of CH2OO from CH2I + O2 was found to have a pressure dependence on N2 and O2 smaller than in previous reports; for air under 1 atm, the yield of ~30% is about twice of previous estimates.

Alcohol dimers--how much diagonal OH anharmonicity?

The OH bond of methanol, ethanol and t-butyl alcohol becomes more anharmonic upon hydrogen bonding and the infrared intensity ratio between the overtone and the fundamental transition of the bridging OH stretching mode decreases drastically. FTIR spectroscopy of supersonic slit jet expansions allows to quantify these effects for isolated alcohol dimers, enabling a direct comparison to anharmonic vibrational predictions. The diagonal anharmonicity increase amounts to 15-18%, growing with increasing alkyl substitution. The overtone/fundamental IR intensity ratio, which is on the order of 0.1 or more for isolated alcohols, drops to 0.004-0.001 in the hydrogen-bonded OH group, making overtone detection very challenging. Again, alkyl substitution enhances the intensity suppression. Vibrational second order perturbation theory appears to capture these effects in a semiquantitative way. Harmonic quantum chemistry predictions for the hydrogen bond-induced OH stretching frequency shift (the widely used infrared signature of hydrogen bonding) are insufficient, and diagonal anharmonicity corrections from experiment make the agreement between theory and experiment worse. Inclusion of anharmonic cross terms between hydrogen bond modes and the OH stretching mode is thus essential, as is a high level electronic structure theory. The isolated molecule results are compared to matrix isolation data, complementing earlier studies in N2 and Ar by the more weakly interacting Ne and p-H2 matrices. Matrix effects on the hydrogen bond donor vibration are quantified.

Infrared spectra of free radicals and protonated species produced in para-hydrogen matrices.

The quantum solid para-hydrogen (p-H2) has emerged as a new host for matrix isolation experiments. Among several unique characteristics, the diminished cage effect enables the possibility of producing free radicals via either photolysis in situ or bimolecular reactions of molecules with atoms or free radicals that are produced in situ from their precursors upon photo-irradiation. Many free radicals that are unlikely to be produced in noble-gas matrices can be produced readily in solid p-H2. In addition, protonated species can be produced upon electron bombardment of p-H2 containing a small proportion of the precursor during deposition. The application of this novel technique to generate protonated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their neutral counterparts demonstrates its superiority over other methods. The technique of using p-H2 as a matrix host has opened up many possibilities for the preparation of free radicals and unstable species and their spectral characterization. Many new areas of applications and fundamental understanding concerning the p-H2 matrix await further exploration.

Infrared absorption of CH3OSO and CD3OSO radicals produced upon photolysis of CH3OS(O)Cl and CD3OS(O)Cl in p-H2 matrices.

Irradiation at 239 ± 20 nm of a p-H(2) matrix containing methoxysulfinyl chloride, CH(3)OS(O)Cl, at 3.2 K with filtered light from a medium-pressure mercury lamp produced infrared (IR) absorption lines at 3028.4 (attributable to ν(1), CH(2) antisymmetric stretching), 2999.5 (ν(2), CH(3) antisymmetric stretching), 2950.4 (ν(3), CH(3) symmetric stretching), 1465.2 (ν(4), CH(2) scissoring), 1452.0 (ν(5), CH(3) deformation), 1417.8 (ν(6), CH(3) umbrella), 1165.2 (ν(7), CH(3) wagging), 1152.1 (ν(8), S=O stretching mixed with CH(3) rocking), 1147.8 (ν(9), S=O stretching mixed with CH(3) wagging), 989.7 (ν(10), C-O stretching), and 714.5 cm(-1) (ν(11), S-O stretching) modes of syn-CH(3)OSO. When CD(3)OS(O)Cl in a p-H(2) matrix was used, lines at 2275.9 (ν(1)), 2251.9 (ν(2)), 2083.3 (ν(3)), 1070.3 (ν(4)), 1056.0 (ν(5)), 1085.5 (ν(6)), 1159.7 (ν(7)), 920.1 (ν(8)), 889.0 (ν(9)), 976.9 (ν(10)), and 688.9 (ν(11)) cm(-1) appeared and are assigned to syn-CD(3)OSO; the mode numbers correspond to those used for syn-CH(3)OSO. The assignments are based on the photolytic behavior and a comparison of observed vibrational wavenumbers, infrared intensities, and deuterium isotopic shifts with those predicted with the B3P86∕aug-cc-pVTZ method. Our results extend the previously reported four transient IR absorption bands of gaseous syn-CH(3)OSO near 2991, 2956, 1152, and 994 cm(-1) to 11 lines, including those associated with C-O, O-S, and S=O stretching modes. Vibrational wavenumbers of syn-CD(3)OSO are new. These results demonstrate the advantage of a diminished cage effect of solid p-H(2) such that the Cl atom, produced via UV photodissociation of CH(3)OS(O)Cl in situ, might escape from the original cage to yield isolated CH(3)OSO radicals.

Infrared absorption of CH3SO2 observed upon irradiation of a p-H2 matrix containing CH3I and SO2.

Irradiation with a mercury lamp at 254 nm of a p-H(2) matrix containing CH(3)I and SO(2) at 3.3 K, followed by annealing of the matrix, produced prominent features at 633.8, 917.5, 1071.1 (1072.2), 1272.5 (1273.0, 1273.6), and 1416.0 cm(-1), attributable to ν(11) (C-S stretching), ν(10) (CH(3) wagging), ν(8) (SO(2) symmetric stretching), ν(7) (SO(2) antisymmetric stretching), and ν(4) (CH(2) scissoring) modes of methylsulfonyl radical (CH(3)SO(2)), respectively; lines listed in parentheses are weaker lines likely associated with species in a different matrix environment. Further irradiation at 365 nm diminishes these features and produced SO(2) and CH(3). Additional features at 1150.1 and 1353.1 (1352.7) cm(-1) are tentatively assigned to the SO(2) symmetric and antisymmetric stretching modes of ISO(2). These assignments are based on comparison of observed vibrational wavenumbers and (18)O- and (34)S-isotopic shifts with those predicted with the B3P86 method. Our results agree with the previous report of transient IR absorption bands of gaseous CH(3)SO(2) at 1280 and 1076 cm(-1). These results demonstrate that the cage effect of solid p-H(2) is diminished so that CH(3) radicals, produced via UV photodissociation of CH(3)I in situ, might react with SO(2) to form CH(3)SO(2) during irradiation and upon annealing. Observation of CH(3)SO(2) but not CH(3)OSO is consistent with the theoretical predictions that only the former reactions proceed via a barrierless path.

An integrated microfluidic system for rapid diagnosis of dengue virus infection.

This study reports an integrated microfluidic system which utilizes virus-bound magnetic bead complexes for rapid serological analysis of antibodies associated with an infection by the dengue virus. This new microfluidic system integrates one-way micropumps, a four-membrane-type micromixer, two-way micropumps and an on-chip microcoil array in order to simultaneously perform the rapid detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM). An IgM/IgG titer in serum is used to confirm the presence of dengue virus infection. By utilizing microfluidic technologies and virus-bound magnetic beads, IgG and IgM in the serum samples are captured. This is followed by purification and isolation of these beads utilizing a magnetic field generated from the on-chip array of microcoils. Any interfering substances in the biological fluids are washed away automatically by the flow generated by the integrated pneumatic pumps. The fluorescence-labelled secondary antibodies are bound to the surface of the IgG/IgM complex attached onto the magnetic beads. Finally, the entire magnetic complex sandwich is transported automatically into a sample detection chamber. The optical signals are then measured and analyzed by a real-time optical detection module. The entire process is performed automatically on a single chip within 30min, which is only 1/8th of the time required for a traditional method. More importantly, the detection limit has been improved to 21pg, which is about 38 times better when compared to traditional methods. This integrated system may provide a powerful platform for the rapid diagnosis of dengue virus infection and other types of infectious diseases.