Point-of-Care Testing for the Detection of MicroRNAs: Towards Liquid Biopsy on a Chip

Point-of-care (PoC) testing is revolutionizing the healthcare sector improving patient care in daily hospital practice and allowing reaching even remote geographical areas. In the frame of cancer management, the design and validation of PoC enabling the non-invasive, rapid detection of cancer markers is urgently required to implement liquid biopsy in clinical practice. Therefore, focusing on stable blood-based markers with high-specificity, such as microRNAs, is of crucial importance. In this work, we highlight the potential impact of circulating microRNAs detection on cancer management and the crucial role of PoC testing devices, especially for low-income countries. A detailed discussion about the challenges that should be faced to promote the technological transfer and clinical use of these tools has been added, to provide the readers with a complete overview of potentialities and current limitations.     

New crystalline polymers: poly(2,5‐dialkyl‐1,4‐phenylene oxide)s

New heat‐reversibly crystalline poly‐(alkylated phenylene oxide)s are described. the oxidative polymerization of 2,5‐dimethylphenol catalyzed by (1,4,7‐triisopropyl‐1,4,7‐triazacyclononane) copper dichloride produced poly(2,5‐dimethyl‐1,4‐phenylene oxide), which showed heat‐reversible crystallinity with a high melting point at ca. 300°C, although the isomeric polymer, poly(2,6‐dimethyl‐1,4‐phenylene oxide), never recrystallizes once melted. The polymerization of 2,5‐diethylphenol and 2,5‐dipropylphenol gave the polymers consisting of 1,4‐phenylene oxide units; the latter polymer possessed heat‐reversible crystallinity, however, the former one did not.