Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

With the development of laser excitation and detection systems, it has become possible to consider analyses that have otherwise been beyond the capacity of experimentalists. In this investigation, a case is made for the development of a device to analyse ATP synthase activity in-vivo . Such analyses ultimately have applications in clinical practice, particularly in the field of mitochondrial disorders, of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA origin.

Changes in extracapillary oxygen transport to tissue due to variation in microcirculatory blood flow velocities have an impact on parameters of the nutritive vessel bed normalizing the muscle oxygen regimen of skeletal muscle under changes in its functional activity.

The hemolysis of human erythrocytes can be proposed as a valuable in vitro model to study the interaction of different molecules with the plasma membrane: given its simplicity and versatility, this method provides a reliable tool to screen potentially damaging or protective compounds like drugs, nutrients and endogenous molecules, with relevance to the pathophysiology and treatment of human diseases.

A fiber-optic biosensing system for the simultaneous quantification of four cardiac markers is currently under development, in our research group, for rapid coronary disease diagnosis and prognosis. As an initial effort, four individual BNP, cTnI, MG, and CRP sensors were developed. The sensors showed excellent performance in quantifying these cardiac markers in their clinically significant ranges within 15 minutes, at a S/N ratio of 25–50. The cross-reactivity of the four sensors was also found to be negligible. A mixture of four AF647-2o Mabs has shown only a slight interference to the four sensors, indicating that the mixture can be applied through a multi-sensing unit for simultaneous detection with an easier operation. Other future work includes simultaneous quantification of these four cardiac markers using a multi-sensing unit. A microfluidic system will be incorporated in the unit for precise fluid control. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology will be utilized for the development of an automatic, smaller, and more cost-effective biosensing chip.

Previous studies showed that endothelial alterations caused by physical stress worsened the hemorheological parameters mainly in patients affected by ischemic vascular diseases: major vascular alterations have been found in patients with very high endothelial dysfunction indexes: these indexes are given by the various substances produced by the endothelium, but it is very difficult to have a value which clearly identifies the real state of the endothelial alteration. The function of the NO, an endogenous vasodilator whose synthesis is catalyzed by NOs, can be determined by the Citrulline/Arginine ratio, which represents the level of activity of the enzyme. A very good index of the endothelial dysfunction is asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), a powerful endogenous inhibitor of NOs; in fact several studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between ischemic vascular disease and high levels of plasmatic ADMA. Our recent studies on heart failure and on ischemic cerebrovascular diseases evaluate endothelial dysfunctions and hemorheological parameters.

In this study, we developed a promising antiatherogenic antioxidant, TX-2012 based on isoprenomics. The inhibitory potency of our artepillin C analogues for LDL oxidation depends not only on the lipophilicity and free radical scavenging activity, but also on the topological properties such as linearity and compactness required for LDL interaction.