Search

Background: Heart failure (HF) patients experience reduced functional fitness level (determining the performance of routine, daily activities) and diminished exercise capacity (linked to more effortful activities). Aim: The aim of the study is to assess this relationship using functional fitness tests compared to peak VO2 and VE/VCO2 slope in the context of exercise capacity and ventilatory response to exercise. Methods: A total of 382 men with stable HFrEF (age: 61 ± 10, NYHA class I/II/III/IV: 16/50/32/2%, LVEF: 30.5 ± 8.3%) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) and a Senior Fitness Test (SFT). Afterwards, the patients were divided according to the 2capacity with peak VO2 ≥ 18 mL/kg/min, those with higher or lower ventilatory responses (VE/VCO2 slope ≥ 35 vs. <35) to the exercise were compared. Results: Patients who covered shorter distances in the 6 min walking test showed worse results in the functional tests ('stand up and go', 'chair stand' and 'arm curl') and CPX (lower peak VO2, shorter exercise time and higher VE/VCO2 slope). Subjects classified into Class D demonstrated the worst results in all elements of SFT; those in Class A demonstrated the best results. Significant differences that were analogous occurred also between classes B and C. Among the participants who reached peak VO2 ≥ 18 mL/kg/min (n = 170), those with VE/VCO2 slope ≥ 35 were characterized by worse physical fitness as compared to those with VE/VCO2 < 35. Conclusion: Reduced exercise tolerance led to worsening physical function in patients with HFrEF. Moreover, limitations in physical fitness seem to be distinctive for those patients showing excessive ventilatory response to exercise slope VE/VCO2 (≥35). The Senior Fitness Test may be considered as a useful tool for assessing comprehensive functional and clinical status and risk stratification in patients with HFrEF, especially those with extremely low exercise capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleic acid extraction and purification are crucial steps in sample preparation for multiple diagnostic procedures. Routine methodologies of DNA isolation require benchtop equipment (e.g., centrifuges) and labor-intensive steps. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as solid-phase sorbents could simplify this procedure. A wide range of surface coatings employs various molecular interactions between dsDNA and magnetic nano-sorbents. However, a reliable, comparative evaluation of their performance is complex. In this work, selected Fe3O4 modifications, i.e., polyethyleneimine, gold, silica, and graphene derivatives, were comprehensively evaluated for applications in dsDNA extraction. A family of single batch nanoparticles was compared in terms of morphology (STEM), composition (ICP-MS/MS and elemental analysis), surface coating (UV-Vis, TGA, FTIR), and MNP charge (ζ-potential). ICP-MS/MS was also used to unify MNPs concentration allowing a reliable assessment of individual coatings on DNA extraction. Moreover, studies on adsorption medium (monovalent vs. divalent ions) and extraction buffer composition were carried out. As a result, essential relationships between nanoparticle coatings and DNA adsorption efficiencies have been noticed. Fe3O4@PEI MNPs turned out to be the most efficient nano sorbents. The optimized composition of the extraction buffer (medium containing 0.1 mM EDTA) helped avoid problems with Fe3+ stripping, which improved the validity of the spectroscopic determination of DNA recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As chemotherapy suffers from the limitation of non-selectivity towards cancer cells, resulting in severe side effects, the targeted delivery of anticancer drugs such as cisplatin using nontoxic nanomaterials has been under extensive examination. In such an approach, qualities such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, ease of synthesis (including the surface modifying possibility with targeting ligands), and the tunable encapsulation of chemotherapeutics make liposomes superior to other nanomaterials as drug nanocarriers. Despite ten liposome-drug formulations being approved for the market, none of them concern platinum-based anticancer drugs. This can be due to the problematic multistep synthesis of such systems and the use of ineffective analytical tools for their characterization. Consequently, the current study aims to propose a straightforward protocol for liposome–cisplatin system synthesis as well as a comprehensive method for their characterization based on the combination of capillary electrophoresis (CE) and inductively coupled plasma-tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS). Although the application of CE-ICP-MS has been reported in previous studies on liposome–cisplatin systems, the advantages of the optimized method proposed in our study include not only the possibility of the direct quantitative monitoring of liposome–metallodrug systems (all analytes of interest) but also their interactions with proteins in close-to-physiological conditions of analysis due to the applied tandem mass mode of the spectrometer. The present approach thereby facilitates overcoming the limitations of the strategies previously described in the literature, especially in the case of sulfur monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction for 'Optimization of a CE-ICP-MS/MS method for the investigation of liposome–cisplatin nanosystems and their interactions with transferrin' by Anna Maria Wróblewska et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2022, 37, 1442–1449, https://doi.org/10.1039/D1JA00459J. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]