Antibody-labeled gold nanoparticle based resonance Rayleigh scattering detection of S100B.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a sudden brain injury due to an external force that causes a large number of deaths and permanent disabilities every year. S100B has been recognized as a potential objective quantitative biomarker for screening the prognosis of TBI and severe head injury. In this article, an anti-S100B monoclonal antibody was immobilized on cysteamine (Cy) functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by EDC-NHS chemistry, which enabled S100B resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) detection based on antibody-labeled gold nanoparticles. The prepared conjugates were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Based on the specific binding of the antibody and antigen, the RRS intensities at 381 nm and 541 nm wavelengths were significantly enhanced, and thus a dual wavelength overlapping resonance Rayleigh scattering (DWO-RRS) method was established. The scattering intensity of the two overlapping peaks was proportional to the concentration of S100B in the range of 0.05-4.5 ng mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.002 ng mL-1. The proposed DWO-RRS method is time-saving, simple, sensitive, and can be used to determine the concentration of S100B in human serum with satisfactory results, which has a promising application in the early diagnosis of TBI.

Clinical prognostic evaluation of immunocytes in different molecular subtypes of breast cancer.

To retrospectively analyze the relationship between preoperative blood parameters and postoperative clinical outcomes in patients with different molecular subtypes of breast cancer (BC), a cohort of 601 patients with BC in the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, was retrospectively reviewed. They were categorized into four subtypes according to the expression of ER, PR, HER-2, and KI-67%. White blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil, and platelet counts, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the neutrophil-to-monocyte ratio (NMR), the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were recorded. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the relationship between parameters and ratios and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Luminal subtypes of BC had smaller tumor volume, better differentiation degree of invasive ductal carcinoma, less lymph node metastasis, and better clinical outcome than the HER-2 overexpression and triple-negative BC (TNBC) subtypes. In multivariate analysis, age and LMR were the independent prognostic factors of DFS in patients with luminal A (age, p = 0.005; LMR, P = 0.026); PLR in patients with luminal B (DFS; p = 0.032; OS, p= 0.012); LMR in patients with HER-2 overexpression (DFS; p = 0.008; OS, p = 0.017); and NLR for DFS (p = 0.014); and WBC for OS (p = 0.008) in patients with TNBC. LMR was the benign predictor of luminal A and HER-2 overexpression. PLR was the adverse predictor of luminal B. WBC and NLR were the adverse predictors of TNBC. Therefore, these peripheral blood parameters can play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with different molecular subtypes of BC.

Ethylene carbodiimide-fixed donor splenocytes combined with cordycepin induce long-term protection to mice cardiac allografts.

Infusion of ethylene carbodiimide-fixed donor splenocytes (ECDI-SPs) is an effective method to induce donor-specific protection to allografts. However, the ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury during transplant leads to abundant of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which negates the effect of ECDI-SPs. Therefore, suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion while promoting anti-inflammatory cytokine release would enhance the graft protective efficacy of ECDI-SPs. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of ECDI-SPs combined with a short course of cordycepin (an anti-inflammatory agent) on the long-term outcomes of mice cardiac allografts. Our results demonstrated that ECDI-SPs combined with cordycepin significantly promoted mice cardiac allograft survival compared with ECDI-SPs monotherapy. This effect was accompanied by decreased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-17 and TNFα), increased secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10 and TGFß), inhibition of Th17 and expansion of Tregs, and prevention of I/R injury. We concluded that cordycepin appeared to enhance the effect of modulating cytokine profile and regulate the Teff:Treg balance so as to strengthen the graft protective effect of ECDI-SPs. Our study of ECDI-SPs combined with cordycepin may provide a promising approach for prolong allograft survival.