RESUMEN
Interpersonal touch plays a crucial role in shaping relationships and encouraging social connections. Failure in processing tactile input or abnormal tactile sensitivity may hamper social behaviors and have severe consequences in individuals' relational lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by both sensory disruptions and social impairments, making affective touch an ideal meeting point for understanding these features in ASD individuals. By integrating behavioral and physiological measures, we investigated the effects of affective touch on adult individuals with ASD from both an implicit and explicit perspective. Specifically, at an implicit level, we investigated whether and how receiving an affective touch influenced participants' skin conductance tonic and phasic components. At the explicit level, we delved into the affective and unpleasant features of affective touch. Overall, we observed lower skin conductance level in ASD compared to TD subjects. Interestingly, the typically developing (TD) group showed an increased autonomic response for affective touch compared to a control touch, while ASD subjects' autonomic response did not differ between the two conditions. Furthermore, ASD participants provided higher ratings for both the affective and unpleasant components of the touch, compared to TD subjects. Our results reveal a noteworthy discrepancy in ASD population between the subjective experience, characterized by amplified hedonic but also unpleasant responses, and the physiological response, marked by a lack of autonomic activation related to affective touch. This insightful dissociation seems crucial for a deeper understanding of the distinctive challenges characterizing people with ASD and may have implications for diagnosis and therapeutic approaches.
Asunto(s)
Afecto , Trastorno del Espectro Autista , Sistema Nervioso Autónomo , Respuesta Galvánica de la Piel , Tacto , Humanos , Trastorno del Espectro Autista/fisiopatología , Trastorno del Espectro Autista/psicología , Masculino , Adulto , Femenino , Respuesta Galvánica de la Piel/fisiología , Sistema Nervioso Autónomo/fisiopatología , Adulto Joven , Tacto/fisiología , Afecto/fisiología , Percepción del Tacto/fisiología , AdolescenteRESUMEN
Multistaining of a tissue section targeting multiple markers allows to reveal complex interplays in a tumor environment. However, the resource-intensive and impractically long nature of iterative multiplexed immunostainings prohibits its practical implementation in daily routine, even when using work-flow automation systems. Here, we report a fully automated and ultra-fast multistaining using a microfluidic tissue processor (MTP) in as short as 20 minutes per marker, by immunofluorescent staining employing commercially available tyramide signal amplification polymer precipitation by horse-radish peroxidase (HRP) activation. The reported duration includes (i) 15 minutes for the entire fluidic exchange and reagent incubation necessary for the immunostaining and (ii) 5 minutes for the heat-induced removal of the applied antibodies. Using the automated MTP, we demonstrated a 4-plex automated multistaining with clinically relevant biomarkers within 84 minutes, showing perfect agreement with the state-of-the-art microwave treatment antibody removal. The presented HRP-based method is in principle extendable to multistaining by both tyramides accommodating higher number of fluorescent channels and multi-color chromogenic staining. We anticipate that our automated multi-staining with a turn-around time shorter than existing monoplex immunohistochemistry methods has the potential to enable multistaining in routine without disturbing the current laboratory workflow, opening perspectives for implementation of -omics approaches in tissue diagnostics.
Asunto(s)
Biomarcadores de Tumor/metabolismo , Neoplasias de la Mama/metabolismo , Microfluídica/instrumentación , Automatización de Laboratorios , Femenino , Técnica del Anticuerpo Fluorescente/instrumentación , Técnica del Anticuerpo Fluorescente/métodos , Humanos , Queratinas/metabolismo , Microfluídica/métodos , Prueba de Estudio Conceptual , Receptor ErbB-2/metabolismo , Receptores de Estrógenos/metabolismo , Receptores de Progesterona/metabolismoRESUMEN
In order to improve the efficacy and safety of treatments, drug dosage needs to be adjusted to the actual needs of each patient in a truly personalized medicine approach. Key for widespread dosage adjustment is the availability of point-of-care devices able to measure plasma drug concentration in a simple, automated, and cost-effective fashion. In the present work, we introduce and test a portable, palm-sized transmission-localized surface plasmon resonance (T-LSPR) setup, comprised of off-the-shelf components and coupled with DNA-based aptamers specific to the antibiotic tobramycin (467 Da). The core of the T-LSPR setup are aptamer-functionalized gold nanoislands (NIs) deposited on a glass slide covered with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), which acts as a biosensor. The gold NIs exhibit localized plasmon resonance in the visible range matching the sensitivity of the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor employed as a light detector. The combination of gold NIs on the FTO substrate, causing NIs size and pattern irregularity, might reduce the overall sensitivity but confers extremely high stability in high-ionic solutions, allowing it to withstand numerous regeneration cycles without sensing losses. With this rather simple T-LSPR setup, we show real-time label-free detection of tobramycin in buffer, measuring concentrations down to 0.5 µM. We determined an affinity constant of the aptamer-tobramycin pair consistent with the value obtained using a commercial propagating-wave based SPR. Moreover, our label-free system can detect tobramycin in filtered undiluted blood serum, measuring concentrations down to 10 µM with a theoretical detection limit of 3.4 µM. While the association signal of tobramycin onto the aptamer is masked by the serum injection, the quantification of the captured tobramycin is possible during the dissociation phase and leads to a linear calibration curve for the concentrations over the tested range (10-80 µM). The plasmon shift following surface binding is calculated in terms of both plasmon peak location and hue, with the latter allowing faster data elaboration and real-time display of the results. The presented T-LSPR system shows for the first time label-free direct detection and quantification of a small molecule in the complex matrix of filtered undiluted blood serum. Its uncomplicated construction and compact size, together with the remarkable performances, represent a leap forward toward effective point-of-care devices for therapeutic drug concentration monitoring.