Take home "assay"
WTF
What's my name again?
100
It's your lunch, or the complex of Au nanoparticles, antigen, and magnetic microparticles
What is a sandwich process? Named so because of the target protein being "sandwiched" between an MMP and Au-np. One is magnetic separation and another to amplify protein.
100
In scheme 2: this is the binding of barcode DNA strands with capture DNA strands
What is hybridization? Bar-code DNA binds to base pair strands of nucelotides that are attached to both glass slides and to gold nanoparticles.
100
Currently, the only definitive test for Alzheimer's
What is postmortem ID of senile plaques/neurofibrillary? This stresses the need for more biochemical techniques that can diagnosis Alzheimer's, especially those with the ability to detect early.
200
The least amount of protein detectable in bio-barcode assay
What is 30 copies of target protein? This is a one million fold increase in sensitivity over conventional ELISA methods.
200
The two horizontal lines in figure 2 represent
What is the mean concentration of ADDL in Alzheimer's diagnosed and control populations? The assay for controls subjects showed a consistently lower level of AADLs than those of the subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
200
Current premortem tests for Alzheimer's are only this accurate.
What is 85%? Patient history, in-vivo brain imaging, neurophysiological, cognitive and neurological test are the current methods used to diagnose Alzheimer's in living patients.
300
This physical force is used to separate the sandwich complex from the cerebral spinal fluid
What is a magnetic field? Magnetic microparticles bind to the ADDL protein, and can be immobilized by a magnetic field. This allows easy separation from cerebral spinal fluid and allows for subsequent washing.
300
Two squares with the lowest concentration of ADDLs in figure 2
What are outliers, or false positives? Overlap with control group is explained by possible misdiagnosis. One subject scored very high on cognitive tests and another had other brain complications.
300
Cleaved tau proteins, phosphorylated tau proteins, and ___________ are the soluble markers for attempting to diagnose Alzheimer's
What is amyloid-B-derived diffusible ligands? (ADDLs) Concentrations of these water soluble protein markers in CSF are so low in early stages of the disease that traditional methods such as ELISA are not useful to measure.
400
The release of bar-code DNA from sandwich process
What is dehybridization? Bar-code DNA is released from the Au-nano particle carrier for scantometirc detection. This is done by heating to 60 C and shaking vigorously. Releasing barcode DNA greatly amplifies the ADDL protein signal.
400
DAILY DOUBLE The calibration curve in figure 1 shows a lower detection limit of 100 of these units
What is 100 attomolar? An atto molar is equal to 10^-18 M, making this one of the most sensitive analytical methods we have seen all quarter. Prior studies of Alzheimer's markers have not been possible because of other methods failures to detect concentrations below 1 picomolar (10^-12M)
400
ADDLs are theorized to be a cause of Alzheimer's, giving them this property
What is synaptotoxicity? Neurotoxicity is also an acceptable answer
500
For bio-barcode assay to work, these must bind specifically to ADDL's, holding the sandwich together
What is monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and/or polyclonal antibodies (pAbs)? It is crucial for the method to work that these antibodies bind to, and only to, the protein of interest. In this case, the ADDL protein.
500
The dashed line in figure 1
What is the chip control? This had a similar response to the negative human control. The positive human control was above linear range and could not be quantified. This was a shortcoming of the article. It buried an explanation to part of figure 1 in the explanation of figure 2.
500
This company announced Tuesday that it would begin testing the first Alzheimer's drug to prevent amyloid aggregation
What is Genentech? Crenezumab, is the first drug to treat Alzheimer's long before patients shows signs of the disease. It will be tested on 300 patients with a family history of Alzheimer's.
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