No abstract

Chemical sensors are a rapidly developing technology that has received much attention in diverse industries such as military, medicine, environmental surveillance, automotive power and mobility, food manufacturing, infrastructure construction, product packaging and many more. The mass production of low-cost devices and components for use as chemical sensors is a major driving force for improvements in each of these industries. Recently, studies have found that using renewable and eco-friendly materials would be advantageous for both manufacturers and consumers. Thus, nanotechnology has led to the investigation of nanocellulose, an emerging and desirable bio-material for use as a chemical sensor. The inherent properties of nanocellulose, its high tensile strength, large specific surface area and good porous structure have many advantages in its use as a composite material for chemical sensors, intended to decrease response time by minimizing barriers to mass transport between an analyte and the immobilized indicator in the sensor. Besides which, the piezoelectric effect from aligned fibers in nanocellulose composites is beneficial for application in chemical sensors. Therefore, this review presents a discussion on recent progress and achievements made in the area of nanocellulose composites for chemical sensing applications. Important aspects regarding the preparation of nanocellulose composites using different functionalization with other compounds are also critically discussed in this review.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is often associated with the older generation. However, in recent years, there is an increasing trend in the prevalence of CAD among the younger population; this is known as premature CAD. Although biomarkers for CAD have been established, there are limited studies focusing on premature CAD especially among the Malay male population. Thus, the aim of this research was to compare the biomarkers between premature CAD (PCAD) and older CAD (OCAD) among Malay males. Subjects, recruited from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre and National Heart Institution, were divided into four groups: healthy control <45 years old; premature CAD (PCAD) <45 years old; healthy control >60 years old; and older CAD (OCAD) >60 years old, with n = 30 for each group. Ten potential markers for CAD including soluble sVCAM-1, sICAM-1, interleukin-2, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, Apo-E and Apo-A1, homocysteine, CRP, and vitamin D levels were examined. Our results revealed premature CAD patients had significantly higher values (p < 0.05) of sVCAM-1, CRP, interleukin-6, and vitamin D when compared to the age-matched controls. Similarly, older CAD patients showed higher levels of sVCAM-1, CRP, and interleukin-2 when compared to their age-matched controls. After adjusting for multiple parameters, only CRP remained significant for PCAD and interleukin-2 remained significant for CAD. This indicates that premature CAD and older CAD patients showed different profiles of protein biomarkers. CRP has the potential to become a biomarker for premature CAD while interleukin-2 is a better biomarker for older CAD together with other typical panels of protein biomarkers.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) predominantly manifests in older population above the age of 60 years old. The incidence of CAD in younger individuals has been reported and is called premature CAD (pCAD). The prevalence for pCAD in individuals below 45 years old is about 3-10% worldwide. Advances in risk prediction are of great importance as absolute values of risk factors sometimes correlate poorly with individuals. The measurement of traditional risk factors such as cholesterol level and blood pressure might be inadequate to predict risk for pCAD and therefore new biomarkers are required. The introduction of omics technology offers insight into the mechanism and interactions involved during disease progression and open the possibilities of discovering new biomarkers. Currently, new potential biomarkers for pCAD have been explored such as homocysteine, apolipoproteins, microRNAs and single nucleotide polymorphisms. In this review, we discussed the associated risk factors for pCAD, several reported and newly proposed biomarkers and their potential to be used clinically.

Purpose Supplements are commonly used to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, studies on folic acid supplementation have failed to support its benefit with pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Observational data suggest the benefit may be greater for healthy and at-risk individuals, but clinical trials have yet to be presented. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review evidence regarding the effectiveness of folic acid supplementation on homocysteine levels among healthy people who are at risk regarding the primary prevention of heart disease. Methods PubMed, Science Direct, COCHRANE Library, and Clinical Trial.gov were searched from the year 2000 to 2015, with manual searches of references list and gray literature. Two investigators were selected to review fair-and goodquality trials that included healthy participants or healthy with risk, measurements of homocysteine levels and trials reporting at least one of the coronary heart diseases as an outcome. Dual quality assessments and data abstraction protocols were established. Results There are limited new trials that have been published to show the effectiveness in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. This limited evidence has given a strong association regarding the effects of folic acid supplementation in reducing homocysteine levels. However, the effectiveness for its role in the primary prevention of a cardiovascular event is still not proven as being beneficial. Conclusion Limited evidence supports any benefit from folic acid supplementation for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease. Studies of the combined effect of folic acid with another preventative method of cardiovascular disease will help determine if folic acid supplementation causally reduces the cardiovascular event from the primary level. To prove its effectiveness, future clinical trials need to be performed.