ObjectiveTo investigate whether psychotropics are associated with an increased risk of fall injuries, hospitalizations, and mortality in a large general population of older adults.MethodsWe performed a nationwide matched (age, sex, and case event day) case–control study between 1 January and 31 December 2011 based on several Swedish registers (n = 1,288,875 persons aged ≥65 years). We used multivariate conditional logistic regression adjusted for education, number of inpatient days, Charlson co‐morbidity index, dementia and number of other drugs.ResultsAntidepressants were the psychotropic most strongly related to fall injuries (ORadjusted: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.38–1.45) and antipsychotics to hospitalizations (ORadjusted: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.19–1.24) and death (ORadjusted: 2.10; 95% CI: 2.02–2.17). Number of psychotropics was associated with increased the risk of fall injuries, (4 psychotropics vs 0: ORadjusted: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.39–1.68), hospitalization (4 psychotropics vs 0: ORadjusted: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.22–1.33) and death (4 psychotropics vs 0: ORadjusted: 2.50; 95% CI: 2.33–2.69) in a dose–response manner. Among persons with dementia (n = 58,984), a dose–response relationship was found between number of psychotropics and mortality risk (4 psychotropics vs 0: ORadjusted: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.76–2.25).ConclusionsOur findings support a cautious prescribing of multiple psychotropic drugs to older patients. © 2016 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this article, we report a functionalised ZnO-nanorod-based selective electrochemical sensor for intracellular glucose. To adjust the sensor for intracellular glucose measurements, we grew hexagonal ZnO nanorods on the tip of a silver-covered borosilicate glass capillary (0.7 µm diameter) and coated them with the enzyme glucose oxidase. The enzyme-coated ZnO nanorods exhibited a glucose-dependent electrochemical potential difference versus an Ag/AgCl reference micro-electrode. The potential difference was linear over the concentration range of interest (0.5 µM -1000 µM). The measured glucose concentration in human adipocytes or frog oocytes using our ZnO nanorod sensor was consistent with values of glucose concentration reported in the literature; furthermore, the sensor was able to show that insulin increased the intracellular glucose concentration. This nanoelectrode device demonstrates a simple technique to measure intracellular glucose concentration.

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Abstract:In this study, a potentiometric intracellular glucose biosensor was fabricated by immobilization of glucose oxidase on nanoflake ZnO. Nanoflake ZnO with a wall thickness around 200 nm was grown on the tip of a borosilicate glass capillary and used as a selective intracellular glucose biosensor for the measurement of glucose concentrations in human adipocytes and frog oocytes. The results showed a fast response within 4 s and a logarithmic linear glucose-dependent electrochemical potential difference over a wide range of glucose concentration (500 nM-10 mM). Our measurements of intracellular glucose were consistent with the values of intracellular glucose concentrations reported in the literature. The monitoring capability of the sensor was demonstrated by following the increase in the intracellular glucose concentration induced by insulin in frog oocytes. In addition, the nanoflake ZnO material provided 1.8 times higher sensitivity than previously used ZnO nanorods under the same conditions. Moreover, the fabrication method in our experiment is simple and the resulting nanosensor showed good performance in sensitivity, stability, selectivity, reproducibility, and anti-interference. All these results demonstrate that the nanoflake ZnO can provide a promising material for reliable measurements of intracellular glucose concentrations within single living cells. Key Words:Glucose oxidase (GOD), Intracellular, Potentiometric biosensor, Nanoflake ZnO, Nafion membrane Among all glucose biosensors, enzyme-based electrochemical glucose biosensors have been in the main focus of biosensor research because of their simplicity, relatively low cost, and high sensitivity [14][15][16]. The intrinsic advantages of electrochemical biosensors are their robustness, easy miniaturization, excellent detection limits, also with small sample volumes, and ability to be used in 3 turbid biofluids. In enzyme-based electrochemical biosensors, enzyme immobilization is regarded to be one of the most important issues. Since proper immobilization of enzymes on a suitable matrix and their stability are important factors in the fabrication of biosensors, the search of support materials that provide large surface area for higher enzyme loading and a compatible microenvironment that helps enzyme bioactivity is thus of great importance.Recently, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have attracted considerable interest in the applications of biosensors due to many advantages, including non-toxicity, bio-safety, excellent biological compatibility, high electron-transfer rates, enhanced analytical performance, increased sensitivity, and easy preparation [17][18][19][20][21][22]. In addition, it is important to note that ZnO is relatively stable around biological pH-values, which makes ZnO compatible with biological fluids and species [23].Furthermore, the high isoelectric point (IEP) of ZnO (IEP 9.5) makes it a good matrix for immobilizing low IEP acidic proteins or DNA by electrostatic interactions with high binding stability [24][25][26]. This wi...