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Autoantibodies are well known as potentially highly harmful antibodies which attack the host via binding to self-antigens, thus causing severe associated diseases and symptoms (e.g. autoimmune diseases). However, detection of autoantibodies to a range of disease-associated antigens has enabled their successful usage as important tools in disease diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. There are several advantages of using such autoantibodies. These include the capacity to measure their presence very early in disease development, their stability, which is often much better than their related antigen, and the capacity to use an array of such autoantibodies for enhanced diagnostics and to better predict prognosis. They may also possess capacity for utilization in therapy, in vivo. In this review both the positive and negative aspects of autoantibodies are critically assessed, including their role in autoimmune diseases, cancers and the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Important issues related to their detection are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report on the analysis of mitochondrial preparations by capillary electrophoresis with postcolumn laser-induced fluorescence detection. Individual mitochondria are detected by fluorescent labeling with the mitochondrion-selective probe, 10-nonyl acridine orange. Interactions between the organelles and the capillary walls are controlled by derivatization of the capillaries with poly-(acryloylaminopropanol). As expected from the presence of charged groups in their outer membranes, isolated mitochondria have intrinsic electrophoretic mobilities. This property may be influenced by variations in size, morphology, membrane composition, and damage caused during the isolation procedure. The mobility distributions of mitochondria isolated from NS1 and CHO cells ranged from -1.2 x [10.sup.-4] to -4.3 x [10.sup.-4] [cm.sup.2] [V.sup.-1] [s.sup.-1] and -0.8 x [10.sup.-4] to -4.2 x [10.sup.-4] [cm.sup.2] [V.sup.-1] [s.sup.-1], respectively. Furthermore, there seems to be no correlation between the density of the mitochondrial fraction and the resultant electrophoretic mobility distribution. These results suggest a new method for characterization of organelle fractions and for counting individual organelles.

Collagen coating of polystyrene (PS) labware involves a multistep process with high costs and complexity. Nonthermal plasma processes have recently been found to deposit coagulated and biologically functional protein layers in a single process step. A series of investigations were, therefore, conducted to compare plasma‐deposited collagen to an equivalent commercially coated product. Chemical and microscopic analysis suggests that the plasma‐deposited collagen retains the surface morphology and functional chemistry of the traditional collagen coating. Cell‐culture studies using two separate cell lines confirmed that the plasma‐deposited materials replicated the cell viability, proliferation and activity of the traditional collagen surfaces and outperformed uncoated PS plates. The implications of this for the protein coating of plastic labware surfaces are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]