Subcortical gray matter structural alterations in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and potentially Alzheimer's disease. However, the precise mechanism underlying the effects of glucose on brain abnormalities is not fully understood. The differential effects of glucose alteration on brain changes in patients with T2D and those with prediabetes are also unclear. MRI data were collected from 21 patients with T2D (male/female, 7/14); 21 patients with prediabetes (male/female, 8/13); and 21 age-matched, sex-matched, and education-matched normal controls (male/female, 7/14). MRI data were analyzed using the Freesurfer software to obtain subcortical gray matter (GM) structural volumes. Spearman correlation analysis was performed between GM structural volume and clinical data. Reduced subcortical GM volumes were found in patients with prediabetes and those with T2D in the bilateral lateral hippocampus, left amygdala, and right putamen compared with healthy controls. In addition, postprandial blood sugar remained significantly associated with GM volume in the left hippocampus of patients with T2D. Our results indicate that prediabetes is not the harmless condition that it was previously thought to be, that impaired glycemia negatively affects the structures of the brain, and that long-lasting hyperglycemia accelerates brain atrophy in patients with T2D.

Analysis of differential expression proteins reveals the key pathway in response to heat stress in Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris DSM 3922T.

For the purpose of investigating the heat resistance mechanism of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris, label-free quantification was used to reveal some cellular changes in A. acidoterrestris during heat stress. Totally, 545 differential expression proteins were respectively identified at heat stress of 65 °C for 5 min, of which 258 proteins were up-regulated and 287 proteins were down-regulated. These significantly changed proteins were mapped to 100 pathways and some of them were mostly related to protection or repair of macromolecules such as proteins and DNA, cell wall formation, which indicated that these proteins might play crucial roles in response to heat stress. The KEGG pathway analysis combined with protein functional analysis and further validation at mRNA level suggested that A. acidoterrestris sensed the temperature rise in environment through alterations in the secondary structure of DNA and RNA molecules. The biosynthesis of antibiotics pathway and the ribosomes might be involved in signal transduction in heat stress and further trigger a large number of proteins playing a critical role in the regulation of heat stress in A. acidoterrestris. The study firstly demonstrated the global physiological response to heat stress and the results provided a better understanding of thermal adaption mechanism of A. acidoterrestris.

Correction to: Development and application of lateral flow test strip technology for detection of infectious agents and chemical contaminants: a review.

The authors would like to call the reader's attention to the fact that unfortunately in the original article Steptococcus suis was introduced as gram-negative bacteria. Steptococcus suis is gram positive. The authors apologize for the mistake.

Utilizing three monoclonal antibodies in the development of an immunochromatographic assay for simultaneous detection of sulfamethazine, sulfadiazine, and sulfaquinoxaline residues in egg and chicken muscle.

A rapid and sensitive immunochromatographic assay (ICA) based on competitive format was developed and validated for simultaneous detection of sulfamethazine (SM(2)), sulfadiazine (SDZ), and sulfaquinoxaline (SQX) in chicken breast muscle and egg samples. For this purpose, three monoclonal antibodies raised against those three sulfonamides were conjugated to colloidal gold particles and applied to the conjugate pads of the test strip. The competitors of the sulfonamides (SM(2)/SDZ/SQX-bovine serum albumin conjugates) were immobilized onto a nitrocellulose membrane at three detection zones to form T(1), T(2), and T(3), respectively. With this method, the cutoff values for the three test lines were achieved at 80 µg/kg, which is lower than the maximum residue levels (MRLs) established for sulfonamides. The recoveries in negative samples spiked at concentrations of 10, 50, and 100 µg/kg ranged from 75% to 82% for egg samples and from 78% to 81% for chicken samples. The method was compared with the HPLC method by testing 180 eggs and chicken breast samples from local markets, and an agreement rate of 99.7% was obtained between the two methods.

Development and application of lateral flow test strip technology for detection of infectious agents and chemical contaminants: a review.

Recent progress in the laboratory has been a result of improvements in rapid analytical techniques. An update of the applications of lateral flow tests (also called immunochromatographic assay or test strip) is presented in this review manuscript. We emphasized the description of this technology in the detection of a variety of biological agents and chemical contaminants (e.g. veterinary drugs, toxins and pesticides). It includes outstanding data, such as sample treatment, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and reproducibility. Lateral flow tests provide advantages in simplicity and rapidity when compared to the conventional detection methods.