Development of a Safe Syringe Disposal System Moving towards Automated Syringe Data Collection.

OBJECTIVES: An automatic needle destroyer (ANDY) was developed to prevent needlestick injuries, and usability tests were conducted in several hospitals. The addition of extra features to the ANDY is in progress, such as data collection and automatic identification of used syringes. Thus, this report describes how the ANDY can be used to track the data of used syringes. METHODS: The motor torque required for barrel separation differs according to syringe diameters. By monitoring the electric current which is consumed for the motor torque, the type of syringe can be identified. Twelve prototypes were produced, and five usability tests were conducted in hospitals. RESULTS: After use, a syringe is inserted into the proposed device, and the needle portion is then cut and separated from the syringe body (barrel) and discarded. The needles are collected in a sharps container for hygienic disposal, and the barrel is dropped into a general medical waste container. CONCLUSIONS: The ANDY can be used to track the syringe used for each patient. The barcode can be read while the syringe rotates in the main body of the ANDY with a built-in omnidirectional scanner. Collection of information during syringe disposal can facilitate stock management. This system could also be extended to other types of consumable medical devices, although it would still be a challenge to differentiate each medical device.

N-terminal truncated UCH-L1 prevents Parkinson's disease associated damage.

Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) has been proposed as one of the Parkinson's disease (PD) related genes, but the possible molecular connection between UCH-L1 and PD is not well understood. In this study, we discovered an N-terminal 11 amino acid truncated variant UCH-L1 that we called NT-UCH-L1, in mouse brain tissue as well as in NCI-H157 lung cancer and SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines. In vivo experiments and hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) with tandem mass spectrometry (MS) studies showed that NT-UCH-L1 is readily aggregated and degraded, and has more flexible structure than UCH-L1. Post-translational modifications including monoubiquitination and disulfide crosslinking regulate the stability and cellular localization of NT-UCH-L1, as confirmed by mutational and proteomic studies. Stable expression of NT-UCH-L1 decreases cellular ROS levels and protects cells from H2O2, rotenone and CCCP-induced cell death. NT-UCH-L1-expressing transgenic mice are less susceptible to degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons seen in the MPTP mouse model of PD, in comparison to control animals. These results suggest that NT-UCH-L1 may have the potential to prevent neural damage in diseases like PD.