The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders, in particular, a biomarker for diagnosing psychiatric and neurological disorders; and a test kit and test method for psychiatric and neurological disorders. The inventors discovered that there is a significant increase in the concentration of free immunoglobulin chains and free immunoglobulin chains in the blood samples from patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. Consequently, the present invention provides a biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders that includes at least one selected from the group consisting of free immunoglobulin chains, free immunoglobulin chains, and fragments thereof. Using this biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders enables the psychiatric and neurological disorders to be easily tested and diagnosed with the blood samples from the subjects. The biomarker enables more effective tests and diagnoses to be conducted combining inflammatory cytokines in the blood of patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders.

The invention relates to in vitro methods for testing formulations or active ingredients for preventing the harmful effects of UV on children's skin, in particular children aged three or less. The inventors have developed methods for evaluating the in vitro efficacy of formulations in preventing the harmful effects of UV on the skin of children aged three or less, using a skin model specifically capable of reproducing the characteristics of the skin of children of this age.

Methods and kits are provided for determining whether an individual is responsive to an anti-CD47 agent and for determining whether an individual is maintaining responsiveness to an anti-CD47 agent by assaying biological samples for the level of at least one biomarker in a biological sample.

The invention provides methods for treating pathological conditions associated with an undesirable inflammatory component. The invention is generally directed to reducing inflammation by administering cells that have one or more of the following effects in an injured subject: interact with splenocytes, preserve splenic mass, increase proliferation of CD4.sup.+ and CD8.sup.+ T-cells, increase IL-4 and IL-10, decrease IL-6 and IL-1, and increase M2:M1 macrophage ratio at the site of injury. The invention is also directed to drug discovery methods to screen for agents that modulate the ability of the cells to have these effects. The invention is also directed to cell banks that can be used to provide cells for administration to a subject, the banks comprising cells having desired potency for achieving these effects.

The present invention includes methods, systems, and kits, for identifying and modifying the treatment of a systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patient prior to the presence of autoantibodies, comprising: (a) obtaining a dataset representing protein expression level values for cytokines and molecules; (b) assessing the dataset for protein expression levels of at least one innate serum mediator; (c) assessing the dataset for protein expression levels of at least one adaptive serum mediator; and (d) determining the likelihood that the patient will develop SLE prior to the onset of autoantibodies when compared to a control.

The present application relates to a erythrocyte-derived magnetic immune particle and uses thereof, according to an aspect, the erythrocyte-derived magnetic immune particle include an erythrocyte-derived cell membrane, which may minimize in vivo side effect, and may be used to detect and remove various type of substances (for example, a pathogenic substance, an inflammatory cytokine, blood glucose, a cancer-related substance, and a brain disease-related substance, etc.) from a sample with excellent efficiency, which may be useful for diagnosing, preventing, or treating various type of diseases, including an infectious disease, an inflammatory disease, diabetes, cancer, and brain disease.

The invention relates to biocompatible, bioabsorbable derivatized non-crosslinked chitosan compositions optionally crosslinked to gelatin/collagen by 1-ethyl-3-[3-dimethylaminopropyl] carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) for biomedical use and methods of making and testing such compositions, including a modified acute systemic toxicity test. The compositions comprise derivatized chitosan reacetylated to a degree of N-deacetylation (DDA) of between about 15% and 40%. The compositions are typically bioabsorbed in about 90 days or less and can be made to bioabsorb at differing rates of speed. The compositions are initially soluble in aqueous solution below pH 6.5. The compositions have an acid content that can be adjusted between about 0% (w/w) and about 8% (w/w) to customize the composition for uses that require and/or tolerate differing levels of cytotoxicity, adhesion, composition cohesion, and cell infiltration into the composition.

A method for the risk detection, early diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of Parkinson's disease in an individual by measuring the amount of specific biomarkers present in a bodily fluid and comparing them to a reference level of biomarkers in a sample from a healthy person, a person previously diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, or an earlier sample from the individual of interest.

The present invention relates to anti-IL-1 beta antibodies and in particular to monovalent high potency IL-1 beta-binding antibody fragments being highly stable. Such antibodies can be used in the treatment of inflammatory and other diseases as well as in diagnostics. Also provided are related nucleic acids, vectors, cells, and compositions.

The invention provides a method of defining the likelihood of a subject having bladder cancer, comprising the steps of: (A) assessing the subject's likelihood of having bladder cancer by: i. identifying at least one sub-population group appropriate to the subject; ii. determining the level of one or more biomarkers selected according to the sub-population group in a sample obtained from the subject; iii. inputting each of the biomarker values into an algorithm to produce an output value; and iv. correlating the output value with the likelihood of the subject having bladder cancer, wherein the sub-population group is selected according to smoking habits, gender, presence/absence of stone disease, history of benign prostate enlargement (BPE) or prescription of anti-hypertensive, anti-platelet and/or anti-ulcer medication, and (B) determining the subject's stratified risk level of serious disease by: v. determining the level of one or more biomarkers specific for one or more risk classifiers defined using Random Forest Classifiers (RFC), logistic regression or another appropriate systems biology or statistical approach in a sample obtained from the subject, vi. inputting each of the biomarker values into an algorithm or algorithms to produce an output value; and vii. correlating the output value with a stratified risk level of underlying serious disease, wherein the likelihood of having bladder cancer is combined with the stratified risk level of having serious disease, wherein the risk of having bladder cancer and/or serious disease is categorized as: high-risk bladder cancer requiring immediate cystoscopy; low-risk bladder cancer requiring urgent cystoscopy; high-risk control requiring close evaluation and further investigation; or low-risk control requiring primary care monitoring.