Discrimination of Acne Vulgaris with Human Scalp Hair Tissues Using FTIR-ATR Spectroscopy

Acne vulgaris is a chronic skin disease, which occurs due to inflammation of the hair follicles and sebum producing (sebaceous) glands of the skin called pilosebaceous unit and the anaerobic propionic acne bacterium, P.acne. Human sebum is dominantly made up of 57.5% of triglycerides and fatty acids, 26%wax esters, 12% Squalene and 4.5% Cholesterol. The increased level Androgen hormone, sebum lipid composition, P.acne over growth which induces monocytes and pro inflammatory cytokines attracts neutrophils, basophils, and T cells to the pilosebaceous unit and drive epithelial hyper proliferation i.e., Acne vulgaris. The actual biomolecular changes due to acne vulgaris disease are present in the blood, in the sebum, and in the noninvasive sample of human scalp hair follicles. The main objectives of the present study are to analyze human scalp hair follicles samples using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy to compare and discriminate the spectral signatures of acne vulgaris and healthy scalp hair tissue samples through acne biomarkers Protein, Amide I, Amide II and Squalene (LDL), using the method of internal ratio parameters. This work represents a first step in the development of the analytical tool for future drug development.

Discrimination of Acne Vulgaris with Human Scalp Hair Tissues Using FTIR-ATR Spectroscopy

Acne vulgaris is a chronic skin disease, which occurs due to inflammation of the hair follicles and sebum-producing (sebaceous) glands of the skin called pilosebaceous unit and the anaerobic propionic acne bacterium, P. Acne. Human sebum is dominantly made up of about 57.5% of triglycerides and fatty acids, 26%wax esters, 12% Squalene, and 4.5% Cholesterol. The increased level Androgen hormone, sebum lipid composition, P. Acne overgrowth which induces monocytes and pro-inflammatory cytokines attract neutrophils, basophils, and T cells to the pilosebaceous unit and drive epithelial hyperproliferation i.e., Acne vulgaris. The actual Biomolecular changes due to acne vulgaris disease are present in the blood, in the sebum, and in the noninvasive sample of human scalp hair follicles. The main objectives of the present study are to analyze human scalp hair follicles samples using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy to compare and discriminate the spectral signatures of acne vulgaris and healthy scalp hair samples through acne biomarkers Protein, Amide I, Amide II and Squalene (LDL), using the method of internal ratio parameters.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Role of Human Saliva as a Testing Biofluid in Point-of-Care Technology

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has termed as a controllable pandemic, and the entire world has come to a standstill trying to mitigate the disease with health systems. Health care providers, around the globe, are fighting day and night. Currently, rapid testing is taking place with the help of nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal swab, bronchoalveolar lavage, sputum, urine, and blood. All these approaches are invasive or embarrassing to the infected person. It is observed that salivary glands are hosting severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) because of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and the detection of high viral loads in the saliva and is playing a crucial role in virus transmission, especially from individuals showing absolutely no symptoms. Saliva is proving to be a promising noninvasive sample specimen for the diagnosis of COVID-19, thus helping to monitor the infection and prevent it from further spreading by prompt isolation.

Discrimination of Acne Vulgaris with Human Scalp Hair Tissues Using - FTIR-ATR Spectroscopy

Acne vulgaris is a chronic skin disease which occurs due to inflammation of the hair follicles and sebum-producing (sebaceous) glands of the skin called pilosebaceous unit and the anaerobic propionic acne bacterium, P.acne. Human sebum is dominantly made up of 57.5% of triglycerides and fatty acids, 26%wax esters, 12% Squalene and 4.5% Cholesterol. The increased level Androgen hormone, sebum lipid composition, P.acne overgrowth which induces monocytes and pro-inflammatory cytokines attract neutrophils, basophils, and T cells to the pilosebaceous unit and drive epithelial hyperproliferation i.e., Acne vulgaris. The actual biomolecular changes due to acne vulgaris disease are present in the blood and in the sebum and also in the noninvasive sample of human scalp hair follicles. The main objectives of the present study are to analyze human scalp hair follicles samples using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy to compare and discriminate the spectral signatures of acne vulgaris and healthy scalp hair tissue samples through acne bio-markers Protein, Amide I, Amide II and Squalene (LDL), using the method of internal ratio parameters.

Urine Galactomannan-to-Creatinine Ratio for Detection of Invasive Aspergillosis in Patients with Hematological Malignancies

Galactomannan (GM) testing of urine specimens may provide important advantages, compared to serum testing, such as easy noninvasive sample collection. We evaluated a total of 632 serial urine samples from 71 patients with underlying hematological malignancies and found that the urine GM/creatinine ratio, i.e., (urine GM level × 100)/urine creatinine level, which takes urine dilution into account, reliably detected invasive aspergillosis and may be a promising diagnostic tool for patients with hematological malignancies. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT01576653.)

On-Site Test for Cannabinoids in Oral Fluid

BACKGROUND Oral fluid (OF) testing offers noninvasive sample collection for on-site drug testing; however, to date, test performance for Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) detection has had unacceptable diagnostic sensitivity. On-site tests must accurately identify cannabis exposure because this drug accounts for the highest prevalence in workplace drug testing and driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) programs. METHODS Ten cannabis smokers (9 males, 1 female) provided written informed consent to participate in this institutional review board–approved study and smoked 1 6.8%-THC cigarette ad libitum. OF was collected with the Draeger DrugTest® 5000 test cassette and Quantisal™ device 0.5 h before and up to 22 h after smoking. Test cassettes were analyzed within 15 min (n = 66), and Quantisal GC-MS THC results obtained within 24 h. Final THC detection times and test performances were assessed at different cannabinoid cutoffs. RESULTS Diagnostic sensitivity, diagnostic specificity, and efficiency at DrugTest 5000's 5 μg/L screening cutoff and various THC confirmation cutoffs were 86.2–90.7, 75.0–77.8, and 84.8–87.9%, respectively. Last detection times were >22 h, longer than previously suggested. Confirmation of 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC, absent in THC smoke, minimized the potential for passive OF contamination and still provided 22-h windows of detection, appropriate for workplace drug testing, whereas confirmation of cannabidiol, and/or cannabinol yielded shorter 6-h windows of detection, appropriate for DUID OF testing. CONCLUSIONS The DrugTest 5000 on-site device provided high diagnostic sensitivity for detection of cannabinoid exposure, and the selection of OF confirmation analytes and cutoffs provided appropriate windows of detection to meet the goals of different drug testing programs.

Disposition of Cannabinoids in Oral Fluid after Controlled Around-the-Clock Oral THC Administration

BACKGROUND Oral fluid, a promising alternative matrix for drug monitoring in clinical and forensic investigations, offers noninvasive sample collection under direct observation. Cannabinoid distribution into oral fluid is complex and incompletely characterized due to the lack of controlled drug administration studies. METHODS To characterize cannabinoid disposition in oral fluid, we administered around-the-clock oral Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (Marinol®) doses to 10 participants with current daily cannabis use. We obtained oral fluid samples (n=440) by use of Quantisal™ collection devices before, during, and after 37 20-mg THC doses over 9 days. Samples were extracted with multiple elution solvents from a single SPE column and analyzed by 2-dimensional GC-MS with electron-impact ionization for THC, 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC), cannabidiol, and cannabinol and negative chemical ionization for 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC (THCCOOH). Linear ranges were 0.5–50 μg/L, with the exception of cannabinol (1–50 μg/L) and THCCOOH (7.5–500 ng/L). RESULTS THCCOOH was the most prevalent analyte in 432 samples (98.2%), with concentrations up to 1117.9 ng/L. In contrast, 11-OH-THC was not identified in any sample; cannabidiol and cannabinol were quantified in 3 and 8 samples, respectively, with maximum concentrations of 2.1 and 13 μg/L. THC was present in only 20.7% of samples, with highest concentrations near admission (median 4.2 μg/L, range 0.6–481.9) from previously self-administered smoked cannabis. CONCLUSIONS Measurement of THCCOOH in OF not only identifies cannabis exposure, but also minimizes the possibility of passive inhalation. THCCOOH may be a better analyte for detection of cannabis use.

Performance of Transcription-Mediated Amplification and Ligase Chain Reaction Assays for Detection of Chlamydial Infection in Urogenital Samples Obtained by Invasive and Noninvasive Methods

Based on the amplification of chlamydia-specific rRNA sequences and the ligase chain reaction (LCR), the performance characteristics of the Gen-Probe Chlamydia trachomatistranscription-mediated amplification (TMA) assay were evaluated with endocervical, urine, and vulval specimens from women and urethral and urine specimens from men and were compared with those for cultures on endocervical, vulval, and urethral swabs. Of the 308 women and 240 men tested, 25 (8.1%) and 44 (18.3%), respectively, were shown to be infected. By using the infected individual as the expanded “gold standard” for calculations, the TMA assay and LCR gave similar performances for the sensitivity of male urethral (93.2%) and urine (88.6 and 86.4%) samples, while culture detected only half of the 44 infected men. In women, the sensitivities of the TMA assay for endocervical and vulval samples were 88 and 92%, respectively, compared to values of 92% for the LCR on both sample types and of 52 and 8%, respectively, for culture. By using first-void urine for chlamydial diagnosis in women, LCR detected 24 (96%) and TMA assay detected 19 (76%) infected individuals, showing a significantly lower sensitivity for urine in women (P = 0.0253). The results indicate a high overall agreement for both amplifying techniques for all examined specimen types, except for female urine. Furthermore, they confirm the previous observation that vulval swabs are an effective alternative noninvasive sample type for the detection of C. trachomatis infection in women by nucleic acid-based amplification technologies.