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Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a set of metabolic disorders, including central obesity, dyslipidemia, arterial hypertension, and hyperglycemia. The prevalence of MetS is increasing in epidemic proportions in both developed and developing countries. MetS increment has been paralleled by the growing epidemic of type-2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Raman spectroscopy is a noninvasive optical technique that has been used in MetS and associated diseases as an alternative to more invasive routine laboratory studies. Raman Spectroscopy's medical diagnosis application is based on the fact that the molecular composition of healthy tissues or biofluids changes due to disease. Identifying biomarkers with this technique can be used for early diagnosis, monitoring disease evolution, and response to treatment. This article reviews recent applications which demonstrate the potential of Raman spectroscopy in the assessment of MetS diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter aims to reply to Bratchenko and Bratchenko's comment on our paper "Feasibility of Raman spectroscopy as a potential in vivo tool to screen for pre‐diabetes and diabetes." Our paper analyzed the feasibility of using in vivo Raman measurements combined with machine learning techniques to screen diabetic and prediabetic patients. We argued that this approach yields high overall accuracy (94.3%) while retaining a good capacity to distinguish between diabetic (area under the receiver‐operating curve [AUC] = 0.86) and control classes (AUC = 0.97) and a moderate performance for the prediabetic class (AUC = 0.76). Bratchenko and Bratchenko's comment focuses on the possible overestimation of the proposed classification models and the absence of information on the age of participants. In this reply, we address their main concerns regarding our previous manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ablative fractional laser surgery is a common technique for treating acne scars. However, an in vivo and noninvasive analysis of the histologic variations between acne skin and the resulting resurfaced skin is needed in order to evaluate the wound healing process of the scars induced by the ablative fractional laser surgery. Materials and Methods: Nine patients with acne scars underwent a single treatment with a CO2 ablative fractional laser surgery. Collagen presence on the resurfaced skin was noninvasively assessed by means of Raman spectroscopy and principal component analysis. Results: Principal component analysis shows that all the patients presented a collagen regeneration on the resurfaced skin after the laser treatment. Conclusion: Collagen plays a crucial role in the wound healing process. By assessing the collagen presence on the skin, it was possible to quantify the regenerative effects of the ablative fractional laser in a noninvasive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identified microbial functional groups like total culturable bacteria, potential N2-fixing free living bacteria, N2-fixing hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria, N-assimilating hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria, total fungi, actinobacteria, P-solubilizers, lipolytic microorganisms, and starch, cellulose, pectin and protein degrading microorganisms, isolated from the rhizosphere of four species of mangroves (Red, Black, White, and Button) from the natural protected area at the Terminos Lagoon, Campeche, México. Overall, microbial populations showed significant differences (P < 0.05) among the four mangrove species. The rhizosphere of White mangrove showed better chemical and textural soil properties, and harbored the highest microbial populations when compared to the remaining mangrove species. The principal component analysis indicated that two components accounted the 85.3% of the total variation. The most significant textural and chemical soil properties were the major components, CP1 (organic matter and total organic carbon) and CP2 (sand and clay). Microbial populations correlated (P < 0.05, Pearson coefficient) with sand and clay particles, and with some soil chemical properties such as organic matter. The total nitrogen and organic carbon significantly correlated with cellulose degraders, while phosphorus with N2-fixing bacteria, total fungi, and with pectin and starch degraders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research describes the application of portable field Raman spectroscopy combined with a statistical analysis of the resulting spectra, employing principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), in which we determine that this method provides a high degree of reliability in the early detection of Huanglongbing (HLB) on Sweet Orange, disease caused by the bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. Symptomatic and asymptomatic plant samples of Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis), Persian Lime (C. latifolia), and Mexican Lime (C. aurantifolia) trees were collected from several municipalities, three at Colima State and three at Jalisco State (HLB presence). In addition, Sweet Orange samples were taken from two other Mexican municipalities, one at San Luis Potosı' and the other at Veracruz (HLB absent). All samples were analyzed by real-time PCR to determine its phytosanitary condition, and its spectral signatures were obtained with an ID-Raman mini. Spectral anomalies in orange trees HLB-positive, were identified in bands related to carbohydrates (905 cm1, 1043 cm-1, 1127 cm-1, 1208 cm-1, 1370 cm-1, 1272 cm-1, 1340 cm-1, and 1260-1280 cm-1), amino acids, proteins (815 cm-1, 830 cm-1, 852 cm-1, 918 cm-1, 926 cm-1, 970 cm-1, 1002 cm-1, 1053 cm-1, and 1446 cm-1), and lipids (1734 cm-1, 1736 cm-1, 1738 cm-1, 1745 cm-1, and 1746 cm-1). Moreover, PCA-LDA showed a sensitivity of 86.9% (percentage of positives, which are correctly identified), a specificity of 91.4% (percentage of negatives, which are correctly identified), and a precision of 89.2% (the proportion of all tests that are correct) in discriminating between orange plants HLB-positive and healthy plants. The Raman spectroscopy technique permitted rapid diagnoses, was low-cost, simple, and practical to administer, and produced immediate results. These are essential features for phytosanitary epidemiological surveillance activities that may conduct a targeted selection of highly suspicious trees to undergo molecular DNA analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]