Day :
- Mass Spectrometry
Location: Persee
Session Introduction
Paul Olusegun Bankole
Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria
Title: Detoxification and biodegradation of an azo dye, Eriochrome black T by Penicillium citrinum
Time : 11:45-12:15

Biography:
Abstract:
- Infrared Spectroscopy
Location: Persee
Session Introduction
Fazle Rakib
Qatar University, Qatar
Title: FT-IR and LA-ICP-MS imaging technology – a new collective tool for bio-molecular and elemental study of breast tissues
Time : 12:15-12:45

Biography:
Abstract:
H&E images show the clear tissue morphology of healthy/control and tumor tissues. HER2 and ER test confirms the presence of tumor and differentiate from control. During FT-IR analysis, spectra and images of healthy/control, benign and malignant tissues of human breasts were obtained and have been determined and analyzed statistically. Several spectral differences were detected: (1) the A1650/A1635 absorbance ratio was the highest for fibro adenoma and carcinoma tissues; (2) the A1680/A1650 absorbance ratio decreased significantly in the order of control<benign<malignant; (3) the frequency of the a-helix amide I band decreased for the malignant tissue, while the corresponding β sheet amide I band frequency increased; (4) there was significant shift in amide I and amide II bands in malignant breast tissue comparing to control and benign tissue; the A1083 absorbance was significantly higher for the malignant than for the other types of tissues; (5) the bands in the region 3100-2975 cm-1 shifted to lower frequencies for the malignant tissues. In comparison with the benign samples, the characteristic changes of malignant ones mainly involve: the prominent bands 1650 and 1550 cm-1 due to the proteins in the α-helical and the unordered-random-coils substructures become stronger compared to those in the β-sheet and the turns substructures, suggesting that the former type of proteins increase in content in contrast to the later. The phosphodiester band 1083 cm-1 of the nucleic acids becomes strongest on cancer tissues spectra and its area ratio to the amide II band 1548 cm-1 rises greatly, indicating that the DNA content rises remarkably. Additionally, LA-ICP-MS was used in order to observe the role of different elemental composition in breast malignancy. Significant accumulation of Fe and Zn was observed in the affected area of the malignant tissue which indicates lower risk of cancer because iron and zinc are crucial contributors for cell proliferation and hormone deficiency. The absence of sufficient reliable methods for early detection of cancers requires a search for new and more effective techniques for screening and prevention. The discovery and introduction of appropriate techniques to test risk groups would increase the chances of successful treatment and subsequently reduce mortality, therefore we propose to take FT-IR and LA-ICP-MS imaging into consideration for the development of new vista as cancer diagnostic tools.
Ahmed Shawky Abouzaid
Misr International University, Egypt
Title: Prediction of ibuprofen tablet hardness using a nondestructive near infrared spectroscopy
Time : 14:30-15:00

Biography:
Ahmed Shawky Abouzaid is a PhD student in Faculty of Pharmacy at Misr International University (MIU), Cairo, Egypt. In June 2004, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and was awarded with cumulative grade; ‘Excellent with High Honor’ from Faculty of Pharmacy, MIU. He obtained his MSc degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Egypt in 2014. He worked in MIU as a Teaching Assistant from 2004 to 2014. From 2014 to 2016, he obtained Internship for his PhD at School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. He is currently studying his PhD degree in Pharmaceutical department, under dissertation title “Applications of Near Infrared in Pharmaceutical Analysis”. He has published two papers in reputed journals and four posters at international conferences
Abstract:
Introduction: Tablet hardness highly affects the tablet quality. A higher hardness would decrease the disintegration time and the effectiveness of the drug. However, a lower hardness would lead to too friable tablets that would not bear the handling required for their packaging. Tablet hardness is usually determined by hardness tester, which is a destructive technique. Therefore, the NIR is currently used as a process analytical technology (PAT) tool to determine the tablet hardness, as it is simple, non-destructive and fast technique widely used in solid dosage manufacturing industry. Changes in the dosage form hardness are seen as sloping spectral baseline shifts in the NIR spectra, in which the absorbance increases as the hardness increases.
Aim: The study aimed to develop and validate NIR reflectance method to determine the ibuprofen tablet hardness. The tablet formulation consisting of ibuprofen (200 mg±5%) as active pharmaceutical ingredient, ludipress, kollidon CL and magnesium stearate were mixed and compressed at varying compression forces (8 kN, 10 kN and 12 kN). Targeted tablet weight was fixed at 350 mg with 10 mm in diameter. Partial least squares (PLS) models for the NIR reflectance spectra was constructed by using calibration laboratory tablets with different hardness values spanning from 12.4 kp to 16.4 kp. The predictive performance of the proposed NIR method was evaluated by traditional chemometric criteria.
Results: The corresponding values for the root mean squared error of calibration (RMSEC), of cross-validation (RMSECV) and of prediction (RMSEP) were equal to 1.81%, 2.51% and 0.99%, respectively.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the proposed NIR method was successfully validated and implemented for the prediction of the external ibuprofen tablet hardness. The most noticeable advantages of the proposed method over the conventional technique (hardness tester) are its non-destructive and rapid characteristics towards the analyzed samples.
Carmen Ali
Qatar University, Doha-Qatar
Title: Assessment of malignant cancer and benign tumors using non destructive vibrational spectroscopy
Time : 15:00-15:30

Biography:
Abstract:
Breast cancer is diagnosed by histopathological examination of breast biopsy material but this is subjective and relies on morphological changes in the tissue. Vibrational spectroscopy imaging techniques such as FTIR and FT-Raman imaging have been proposed to be a possibly effective assistant to current histopathological procedures in different types of breast tissues: a) healthy control (areas taken from site else than the tumor), b) benign tumors such as fibro-adenoma and ductal papilloma, c) cases with increased risk of malignancy such as usual ductal hyperplasia and d) malignant such as infiltrative ductal carcinoma. FTIR and FT-Raman imaging spectroscopy were applied in order to investigate the breast tissue cells and tissue structures that constitute a vital part of breast malignancy. Vibrational spectroscopy uses incident radiation to induce vibrations in the molecules of a sample and the scattered radiation can be used to characterize the sample. This technique is rapid and non-destructive and is sensitive to subtle biochemical changes occurring at the molecular level. This allows spectral variations corresponding to disease onset to be detected. The aim of this work was to use FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy to discriminate between benign lesions and cancer using formalin fixed paraffin preserved (FFPP) tissue. Haematoxylin and Eosin stained sections from the patient biopsies were marked by a pathologist. FT-IR and FT-Raman maps were recorded from parallel unstained tissue sections. Immunohistochemical staining for estrogen receptor (ER) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/Neu) was performed on a further set of parallel sections. Both benign and cancer cases were positive for ER while only the cancer cases were positive for HER2. Significant spectral differences were observed between the benign and cancer cases and the benign cases could be differentiated from the cancer cases with good sensitivity and specificity. This study has shown the potential of vibrational spectroscopy as an aid to histopathological diagnosis of breast cancer, in particular in the discrimination between benign and malignant tumors.
- Energy Dispersive (EDS/EDX) X-RAY Spectroscopy
Location: Persee
Session Introduction
Florian Rettenmeier
Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany
Title: Development and application of a simulation environment for the analysis of EDX signal processing algorithms
Time : 12:45-13:15

Biography:
Florian Rettenmeier has completed his BSc in the field of Physical Engineering and MSc with distinction in the field of Micro- and Nano-Technology at Munich University of Applied Science. Currently, he is a Research Associate and Doctoral candidate at the Bundeswehr University Munich in Neubiberg at the Institute for Microelectronics and Circuit Design. His field of research is the optimization of FPGA-based signal processing for energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
Abstract:
Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) is used for non-destructive material characterization in a wide range of industries and sciences. Signal processing for semiconductor X-ray detectors is usually performed in a FPGA-based digital spectrometer. Major challenges in the optimization of the signal processing are improvements in signal throughput, detection of low-energy signals, energy resolution, and efficiency at high energies and usage of low computing power. In order to extend the performance of digital spectrometers and improve material characterization, development and comparison of signal processing algorithms is needed. Experimental analysis of algorithms is often time-consuming and error-prone. A new approach is presented by the development of a simulation environment. Time-domain signals are modeled in a statistical Monte-Carlo-like approach, considering Fano-noise, X-ray timing, and rise-time variations. Detector noise and leakage current is added to the signal as well as distortion by analog frontend. Verification is performed by virtual signal processing with common algorithms and comparison of the results with a commercially available digital EDX-system. Good agreement in signal throughput and energy resolution is achieved at 5.9 keV. Furthermore, the simulation environment is used to analyze modern signal processing methods: dynamic detector reset, triggered by the signal processing unit improves the throughput at 30 keV up to 13% at low input counts rates (>20 kcps) for short energy-filter peaking-times (100 ns). The advantages are reduced for higher count rates, longer energy-filter peaking-times and lower energies. Pulse detection by proper filter combination leads to the better low-energy efficiency of a long pulse-detection-filter by maintaining good pileup-rejection of a long pulse-detection-filter.
- Proteomics
Location: Persee
Session Introduction
Salwa Hamdi Gomaa
Alexandria University, Egypt
Title: Analysis of variant IFNL4 rs368234815 by simple PCR-RFLP technique is as effective as PCR sequencing in Egyptian patients chronically infected with HCV genotype 4
Time : 15:30-16:00

Biography:
Abstract:
Background: Hepatitis C viral infection is an endemic health problem in Egypt with the highest prevalence rate worldwide. Several host and viral factors could affect the response to antiviral treatment among the most important host genetic factors, IFNL4 rs368234815 variant that is classified as a deletion/insertion genetic variation (TT/∆G), that proved to have an important role in spontaneous and treatment induced clearance of HCV infection.
Aim: This study aimed to validate a simple, cheap and rapid polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method for analysis of IFNL4 rs368234815 dinucleotide variant in comparison to the reference PCR sequencing technique
Subjects & Methods: IFNL4 rs368234815 variant was genotyped using two methods; a simple PCR-RFLP method and PCR sequencing method as a reference method in 40 patients chronically infected with HCV genotype 4.
Results: Genotyping results of IFNL4 rs368234815 variant with PCR-RFLP were concordant with PCR sequencing method in all studied patients with 100% analytical sensitivity and specificity.
Conclusion: We strongly suggest a validated, simple and rapid PCR-RFLP method for genotyping of common IFNL4 rs368234815 that is more cost-effective than PCR sequencing.