All that glitters is not gold: X-ray fluorescence analysis of a fixed dental prosthesis from Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI, Portugal (CEI/XXI).

Access to better health care anticipates that more medical devices can be found alongside skeletal remains. Those employed in oral rehabilitation, with available brands or batch/series, can prove useful in the identification process. A previous study in the Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI described macroscopically the dental prostheses. An unusual case of a dental device with chromatic alterations demonstrated to require a more detailed analysis. The individual, a 53-year-old male, exhibited, at both arches, a fixed tooth-supported rehabilitation, with gold colouring classified initially as a gold-palladium alloy. Simultaneously, a green pigmentation deposit was observable in bone and prosthesis. This investigation aimed to verify the elemental composition of the dental prosthesis alloy. Elemental analysis was performed by X-ray fluorescence in two regions (labial surface of the prosthetic crown and the root surface of the lower right lateral incisor). Both the spectra and the qualitative results found higher levels of copper and aluminium, followed by nickel, iron, zinc, and manganese. No gold or palladium was detected. The most probable assumption is that a copper-aluminium alloy was used, as its elemental concentration corresponds to those measured in similar devices. Dental prostheses of copper-aluminium alloys have been made popular since the 1980s, particularly in the USA, Japan, and Eastern Europe. Apart from the biographical information, it was also known that the individual's place of birth was an Eastern European country, which highlighted the usefulness of this type of information when dealing with missing people cases.

The modern Dental Cast Reference Collection from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

INTRODUCTION: Identified skeletal and skull collections are centrepiece for research in biological anthropology. However, until recently, the same relevance has not been placed on dental cast collections. This perspective evolved, mainly, with the research on population variation and human identification through dental characteristics. While dental collections exist throughout the world, their reports and documentation are scarce in the literature. AIMS: This work aims to present the new Dental Cast Reference Collection - University of Coimbra (DCRC - UC) housed in the Laboratory of Prehistory of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). BASIC PROCEDURES: The modern dental cast collection (DCRC - UC) was created in 2016 for teaching and research purposes. The casts were obtained from volunteers who answered a brief questionnaire (sex, age, nationality, previous orthodontic and dental data) after informed consent. MAIN FINDINGS: The collection includes the dental casts of 90 adult individuals of both sexes: 69 females and 21 males. The volunteers were students, teachers and visiting researchers of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra. Age ranges from 17 to 49 years, including individuals of Portuguese (n = 79) and non-Portuguese nationality (n = 11). Lastly, the strategy of the conservation and storage conditions of the casts are underlined, a vital aspect of this working collection, emphasizing its protection while also allowing it to function as a usable resource. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: Currently, the addition of new individuals to the dental cast collection is paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however the future work and expected expansion will require new logistic solutions. The DCRC - UC is an invaluable resource to both research and teaching activities.

α-Synuclein aggregation in the saliva of familial transthyretin amyloidosis: a potential biomarker.

Familial transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by the formation of transthyretin (TTR) amyloid deposits. This crippling and fatal disease is associated with point mutations in TTR, a protein mainly produced in the liver. Hence, liver transplantation is the only treatment capable of halting disease progression. Ideally, liver transplantation should be performed as early as possible in the disease course before significant neurologic disability has been incurred. Early detection of disease before serious pathological lesions occur is crucial for the clinical management of patients and for morbidity delay. Unfortunately, the presence of TTR mutations by itself is not a predictor of disease onset or progression. In the present work, we observed an increased oligomerization of α-synuclein in the saliva of ATTR symptomatic individuals comparatively to asymptomatic carriers of the same TTR mutation and healthy control subjects. Based on this observation, we propose monitoring α-synuclein oligomers in saliva as a biomarker of ATTR progression. Since α-synuclein plays a major role in several neurodegenerative disorders, assessing its oligomerization state in this fluid provides a non-invasive approach to survey these pathologies.