Field-deployable pencil lead-based electrochemical cell for the determination of the emerging contaminant and antidepressant drug venlafaxine in wastewater.

Screening and quantification of emerging contaminants in water is of enormous relevance due to its scarcity and harmful effects on aquatic life and human health. We present a simple and cost-effective electrochemical cell for determination of the antidepressant venlafaxine, an emerging contaminant included in the EU Watch list 2022. The cell consists of pencil leads used as electrodes and a microcentrifuge tube.

Nasal exudate for diagnosis of stroke: fundamental studies through iron fractionation, total iron, and targeted protein determinations.

During the last years, there has been an increasing research interest in the analysis of biological fluids requiring non-invasive sampling for biomedical and clinical applications. In this work, we have focused on the nasal exudate with the aim of investigating the potential use of this fluid to know the role of iron in stroke and also for diagnosis. Potential differences in the nasal exudate, collected in swabs, from diagnosed hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, and control groups were investigated with regard to total iron by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, iron fractionation studies by size exclusion chromatography together with post-column isotope dilution analysis, and four proteins containing iron (ferritin, transferrin, lactoferrin, and ferroportin) with ELISA kits.

ElectrochemCap: an integrated detection for loop-mediated isothermal amplification reactions.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of genetic materials has emerged as a powerful molecular biology technique with great potential to be a standard point-of-care (POC) technique. This method has found several applications, but it still presents challenges for its direct on-site application, particularly in terms of integrated reaction and detection systems and the risk of carryover contamination. In this work, we propose an innovative solution - an electrochemical microcentrifuge tube cap (ElectrochemCap) based on a screen-printed electrode, a 3D printed adapter and an adhesive layer - which integrates the amplification reaction and its subsequent electrochemical detection in a single device.

Palladium nanoclusters as a label to determine GFAP in human serum from donors with stroke by bimodal detection: inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and linear sweep voltammetry.

Water-soluble, stable, and monodisperse palladium nanoclusters (PdNCs) were synthesized using NaBH as a reductant and lipoic acid as a ligand. PdNCs, measured by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, showed a round shape and a diameter of 2.49 ± 0.

Measurement of GFAP in Nasal Exudate in the Differential Diagnosis between Ischemic Stroke and Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Background: Differential diagnosis between ischemic stroke (IS) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a great challenge. Recently, the discovery of cerebral lymphatic drainage toward the nostrils suggested nasal exudate (NE) as a new source for measuring biomarkers from neural damage.

Objectives: In this study, we sought to confirm whether glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels in NE could identify ICH.