Boronate affinity chromatography (BAC) is a unique means for selective separation and enrichment of cis-diol-containing compounds. Cis-diol-containing biomolecules are an important class of compounds, including glycoproteins, glycopeptides, ribonucleosides, ribonucleotides, saccharides, and catecholamines. These biomolecules play essential roles in many life-related processes. Because cis-diol-containing biomolecules are important target molecules in current research frontiers such as proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics, BAC and boronate affinity materials have gained rapid development and found increasing applications in recent decades. BAC is a unique mode of affinity chromatography, in which a boronic acid is used as the ligand for the selective isolation and enrichment of cis diol-containing compounds. The retention mechanism mainly relies on the pH-controlled reversible covalent interactions between cis-diol groups and the boronic acid ligand. As compared to other affinity chromatographic techniques, BAC exhibits several significant features, including broad-spectrum selectivity, reversible covalent binding, pH-controlled binding/release, and fast association/desorption kinetics. Owing to these merits, BAC is of great value in a variety of fields such as affinity separation, proteomic analysis, and metabolomics analysis.   HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT The history of BAC can be simply divided into three different periods: early development period before 1970, approach-forming period 1970–2005, and new development period since 2006.   PRINCIPLE AND BINDING PH BAC principle relies on the reversible covalent reaction between cis-diol-containing compounds and boronic acid ligands. Figure 1 shows a general formula for the interaction between boronic acid and a cis diol-containing compound. When the surrounding pH is greater than the pKa value of the boronic acid, hydrolysis of the boronic acid occurs, resulting in a hybridization status change from trigonal coplanar shape to tetragonal boronate anion (from sp2 to sp3). The obtained tetragonal boronate anion can react with cis-diols and form five or six-membered cyclic esters. When the pH of the surrounding solution is switched to acidic, the boronic acid-cis-diol complex dissociates, because the binding strength between boronic acids in trigonal form and cis diol-containing compounds is very weak. Owing to the pH-controlled reversible covalent reaction, elution of captured analytes in BAC is very simple, just needing an acidic solution as the eluting buffer. Alternatively, the release of the captured analytes by the boronic acid ligands can be realized through adding excessive amounts of competing for cis-diol-containing molecules such as sorbitol into the loading buffer.   BORONATE AFFINITY CHROMATOGRAPHY Figure 1 Schematic diagram showing the interaction between boronic acids and cis-diol-containing compounds. INTERACTION MECHANISM AND SELECTIVITY MANIPULATION Selectivity is an esse...

Diabetes statistics around the world in 2021 Diabetes diagnostics systems are used to measure blood glucose levels or blood sugar levels, which indicates whether or not a person is suffering from diabetes. According to International Diabetes Federation’s findings in 2021. 537 million adults (20-79 years) are living with diabetes 1 in 10. This number is predicted to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. Over 3 in 4 adults with diabetes live in low- and middle-income countries. Diabetes is responsible for 6.7 million deaths in 2021, 1 every 5 seconds. Diabetes caused at least USD 966 billion in health expenditure 316% increase over the last 15 years. 541 million adults have Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), which places them at high risk of type 2 diabetes. IDF analyzed by regional investigation, that adults are living with diabetes also future predictions in 2030 and 2045.Table 1. By Regions Average number of people at present Average number of people in mln Number of people with diabetes in mIn by 2030 Number of people with diabetes in mln by 2045 Afrika 1 in 22 24 55 Europe 1 in 11 61 67 69 Middle East and North Africa 1 in 6 73 95 136 North America and Caribbean 1 in 7 51 57 63 South and Central America 1 in 11 32 40 49 South-East Asia 1 in 11 90 113 151 Western Pacific 1 in 8 206 206 260 Table 1.The number of adults living with diabetes and upcoming numbers. HbA1c testing review Demand for diabetes diagnostics devices and systems is being driven by the need for easier, economic, and efficient management of the global diabetes epidemic, improving ease-of-use and accuracy of devices, and development of non-invasive techniques to simplify regular glucose testing. The spread of diabetes at epidemic proportions is driving the requirement for pre-diabetics testing and post-prandial glucose-level monitoring. With increasing levels of patient education on possible ways of preventing and delaying the onset of Type II diabetes, more and more pre-diabetics are expected to start testing blood glucose. Technology advancements in diabetes diagnostics that are poised to benefit market prospects in the near term include mHealth Solutions for diabetes diagnosis; wearable glucose testing devices; implantable continuous glucose monitor; and cloud-enabled CGM devices, among others. COVID-19 and diabetes There are many reasons why people with diabetes may be more susceptible to developing adverse events following COVID-19 infection. Diabetes is extremely common in older populations, including those living in long-term care facilities, a setting that was particularly affected byearly outbreaks of COVID-19 severity and death. As in thegeneral population, age appears to be an important riskfactor for COVID-19 severity and mortality in hospitalized people with diabetes. Research studies suggest that diabetes is a risk factor for severe COVID-19-related disease, resulting in a greater risk of hospitalization and death. Populations with diabetes should be...

The prognostic power of circulating cardiac biomarkers, their utility, and pattern of release in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have not been clearly defined.   The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has led to over 474 million confirmed cases with 6,098,739 deaths worldwide by March 23rd, 2022.   Patients with preexisting cardiovascular conditions are particularly at risk and have poor prognoses. Clinical characteristics including heart rate, breath rate, fever, cough, and dyspnea at the time of admission were analyzed. Laboratory measurements including neutrophil count, CRP (C-reactive protein), cardiac biomarkers (hs-cTnI, CK-MB, NT-proBNP [N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide] or BNP [brain natriuretic peptide], MYO [myoglobin], and CK), and inflammatory cytokine IL (interleukin)-6 at admission and during hospitalization were extracted and analyzed. Cardiac-specific biomarkers, such as hs-cTnI, CK-MB, and (NT-pro)BNP. Compared with patients without available myocardial biomarkers, patients with measured cardiac injury markers had higher incidences of 28-day all-cause death and the occurrences of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, heart failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), sepsis, or multiorgan failure, and acute renal failure.   Prognostic Performance of Cardiac Injury Biomarkers in Predicting 28-Day All-Cause Mortality of COVID-19. To compare the relative accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of each biomarker based on laboratory defined ULN, the prognostic performance of each marker was analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to demonstrate the ability of each cardiac biomarker in discrimination of high risk of COVID-19 mortality, which was quantitated as AUC. Trajectory Patterns of Cardiac Biomarkers and Inflammatory Factor Elevation in Patients With COVID-19. To further demonstrate the mechanistic cause of cardiac injury in COVID-19 patients, Which determined the temporal relationship of cardiac biomarker elevation with that of the inflammatory markers over time, it has been analyzed the cumulative proportions of patients with increased cardiac biomarkers in association with inflammatory factors of CRP, neutrophil count, and IL-6 elevation during the entire study period. This was based on the laboratory-defined ULN and analyzed from the time of symptom onset (day 0) to the end of follow-up.   In patients showing heart injury during the entire hospitalization, neutrophil percentage and CRP were rapidly and simultaneously increased after disease onset, immediately followed by the increases of CK-MB, MYO, and hs-cTnI. In contrast, the significant elevation of IL-6 occurred only after the increases of these myocardial markers and was highly elevated mainly in patients with evidence of cardiac injury. The increased inflammatory ma...

Looking back in Diagnosing diseases, Current POCT. Looking into the future. Today epidemics of infectious diseases occur more often and spread both faster and further due to globalization and changes in our lifestyles. One way to meet these biological threats is so-called “Frugal Innovations”, which focus on the development of affordable, rapid, and easy-to-use diagnostics with widespread use. In this context, point-of-care-tests (POCTs), performed at the patient’s bedside, reduce extensive waiting times and unnecessary treatments, and enable effective containment measures. Progress in POCT technology and insights on how to use them allows the handling of more patients most effectively in a shorter time frame and consequently improves clinical outcomes at a lower cost. Looking back on the Conventional diagnostic testing Traditional clinical testing is known as the most commonly applied method in clinics and hospitals all across the world. It is believed that there is no laboratory that has not been encountered in one form or another. Traditional testing provided highly reproducible, quantitative data that makes it an advantageous biotechnological tool in scientific research and clinical diagnosis. Nonetheless, Old testing procedures suffered from certain drawbacks. Different attempts were made for the development of the modified platforms to improve this technique and overcome its shortages. POCT and current situation Time-consuming procedures such as transportation, processing, and aliquoting processes are reduced or even eliminated by bringing every step (sample acquisition, preparation, analysis) directly to the patient’s bedside, thereby creating a more streamlined and faster workflow. Looking into the future. POCT has the potential to reduce global health care costs. The highest demand at present is for developing POCT platforms for resource-limited settings. One of the major challenges is to translate research in the POCT area into affordable products that are available at the periphery of the health care system. Intensive efforts would be required to convert the prototypes into highly reproducible POCT platforms with better performance and cost-effectiveness after scaling up. BIOTIME as POCT manufacturer As a high-tech enterprise specializing in developing, manufacturing, and trading POCT in vitro diagnostic reagents. We build revolutionary products in diagnostics, medical devices that serve you, your family, and your community to lead healthy lives. Our devices and reagents are developed with the aim, which is “Fast is fine, but Accuracy is everything”. Numerous master's and doctoral candidates who have an international background are part of our outstanding team of scientists. Our every product has been built with a Trend-tracking function which provides nurses, physicians, respiratory, and therapists, to be able to trace their patients’ history results and treat them efficiently. We provide constant training programs for our devices, re...