Serum activities of alanine- and aspartate- aminotransferases (ALT and AST) are considered the "gold standard" biomarkers of hepatocyte injury in clinical practice and drug development. However, due to expression of ALT and AST in myocytes, the diagnosis of hepatocellular injury in patients with underlying muscle diseases, including drug-induced muscle injury, is severely limited. Thus, we proposed glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) as a liver-specific alternative to serum ALT and AST.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnti-amyloid treatments for early symptomatic Alzheimer disease have recently become clinically available in some countries, which has greatly increased the need for biomarker confirmation of amyloid pathology. Blood biomarker (BBM) tests for amyloid pathology are more acceptable, accessible and scalable than amyloid PET or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests, but have highly variable levels of performance. The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease convened a BBM Workgroup to consider the minimum acceptable performance of BBM tests for clinical use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a thulium-doped silica fiber, featuring a depressed cladding, for applications at wavelengths below 1800 nm. The depressed cladding is used as a distributed filter suppressing amplified spontaneous emission at longer wavelengths, which helps promote emission at shorter wavelengths. We describe the fiber design process that was carried out by using a combination of numerical methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present the development of a pair of silica-based thulium-doped fiber amplifiers working together in a broad spectral range from 1.65 µm to 2.02 µm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF