ABSTRACT
To help meet the global demand for reliable and inexpensive COVID-19 testing and environmental analysis of SARS-CoV-2, the present work reports the development and application of a highly efficient disposable electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical and environmental matrices. The sensor developed is composed of a screen-printed electrode (SPE) array which was constructed using conductive carbon ink printed on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate made from disposable soft drink bottles. The recognition site (Spike S1 Antibody (anti-SP Ab)) was covalently immobilized on the working electrode surface, which was effectively modified with carbon black (CB) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The immunosensing material was subjected to a multi-technique characterization analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with elemental analysis via energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The electrochemical characterization of the electrode surface and analytical measurements were performed using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square-wave voltammetry (SWV). The immunosensor was easily applied for the conduct of rapid diagnoses or accurate quantitative environmental analyses by setting the incubation period to 10 min or 120 min. Under optimized conditions, the biosensor presented limits of detection (LODs) of 101 fg mL-1 and 46.2 fg mL-1 for 10 min and 120 min incubation periods, respectively; in addition, the sensor was successfully applied for SARS-CoV-2 detection and quantification in clinical and environmental samples. Considering the costs of all the raw materials required for manufacturing 200 units of the AuNP-CB/PET-SPE immunosensor, the production cost per unit is 0.29 USD.
ABSTRACT
Las infecciones de las vías urinarias son a veces consideradas de poco interés médico, fácil de diagnosticar y tratar. Sin embargo, las mismas representan ingentes gastos para la Salud Pública, debido a su alta frecuencia, por los estudios de laboratorio necesarios para el adecuado manejo y de imágenes que son solicitados. Por otra parte los antibióticos utilizados en general, y en particular para los gérmenes que presentan resistencia a los mismos. En el presente artículo de revisión se exponen informaciones respecto a datos estadísticos de la frecuencia de las principales infecciones de vías urinarias en ambos sexos, el costo que representan los mismos, tasas de mortalidad, tasas de recurrencia y algunas perspectivas desde el punto de vista de la Salud Pública general y el de nuestro país en particular.
Urinary tract infections are sometimes considered of little medical interest, easy to diagnose and treat. However, they represent huge expenses for public health, due to their frequency, laboratory studies and images that are also requested by the antibiotics used in general and in particular for the germs that are resistant to them. In this review article we present information regarding statistical data on the frequency of the main urinary tract infections in both sexes, their cost, mortality rates, recurrence rates and some perspectives from the point of view of general Public Health and that of our country in particular.
ABSTRACT
Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies (HMSN) are genetically heterogeneous disorders affecting peripheral motor and sensory functions. Many different pathogenic variants in several genes involved in the demyelinating, the axonal and the intermediate HMSN forms have been identified, for which all inheritance patterns have been described. The mutation screening currently available is based on Sanger sequencing and is time-consuming and relatively expensive due to the high number of genes involved and to the absence of mutational hot spots. To overcome these limitations, we have designed a custom panel for simultaneous sequencing of 28 HMSN-related genes. We have applied this panel to three representative patients with variable HMSN phenotype and uncertain diagnostic classifications. Using our NGS platform we rapidly identified three already described pathogenic heterozygous variants in MFN2, MPZ and DNM2 genes. Here we show that our pre-custom platform allows a fast, specific and low-cost diagnosis in sporadic HMSN cases. This prompt diagnosis is useful for providing a well-timed treatment, establishing a recurrence risk and preventing further investigations poorly tolerated by patients and expensive for the health system. Importantly, our study illustrates the utility and successful application of NGS to mutation screening of a Mendelian disorder with extreme locus heterogeneity.
