Page 32 - Plastics News October 2016

FEATURES
the forecast period. However, factors such as threat
of substitutes and volatility in prices of raw materials
are likely to hamper market growth. Rise in usage of
thermoplastic polyurethane films in the aerospace segment
is estimated to provide lucrative growth opportunities for
the thermoplastic polyurethane market for films in the
next few years.
In terms of demand, Asia Pacific accounted for a key
share of the thermoplastic polyurethane films market
in 2015. The region is projected to lead the market
during the forecast period owing to the high demand for
Diagnostics of the future
New polymer warns of dangerous kidney disease
The advanced phase of acute kidney injury can be
fatal in even one in two patients. Fortunately, now it
will be possible Academy of Sciences and the International Institute of
to detect
the disease
in its initial
stages, when
treatment is
still relatively compounds, whose presence or changes in concentration
simple and the
prognosis good.
The key to this health and life-saving manner of diagnosis
is a new polymer, designed at the Institute of Physical
Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
The chemical heart of low-cost diagnostic tools capable
of detecting the early stages of kidney disease may, in the
near future, be a special polymer prepared by PhD student
Zofia Iskierko under the supervision of Dr. Krzysztof
Noworyta, in Prof. Wlodzimierz Kutner's group at the
Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of
Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw. The polymer was designed
and carefully constructed so as to particularly effectively
entrap only one substance in its vicinity: lipocalin-2
(NGAL), a protein naturally occurring in human blood.
For the clinician, an increase in the concentration of
this compound in a patient is a valuable signal of still
symptomless, but already developing, acute kidney injury.
Work on the implementation of the polymer, funded by
grant from the Polish National Centre for Science, was
Plastics News | O c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 32
thermoplastic polyurethane in automotive and building &
construction industries. Europe and North America held
considerable market share in 2015; however, demand
for thermoplastic polyurethane films is likely to remain
stable in these regions due to the average growth of
automotive and building & construction industries.
Latin America is estimated to be a lucrative market for
thermoplastic polyurethane films in the next few years
owing to the rise in investment in production of new
building & construction projects and increase in demand
for new automobiles.
carried out in collaboration with the University of North
Texas in Denton, the Warsaw Institute of Physics of the
Molecular and Cell Biology.
"We deal with the creation of polymer recognition films
for chemosensors that detect various substances. These
include biomarkers and other biologically important
in body fluids carry information about the health of
the patient. Our latest polymer can selectively capture
lipocalin-2, a protein biomarker for acute kidney injury,"
says Dr. Noworyta.
Acute kidney injury, earlier known as acute renal failure,
affects about three in a thousand people. However, on
hospital wards the situation is much more serious: up
to 40% of hospital patients may suffer from this disease.
With early diagnosis the effects of acute kidney injury
are reversible. The clear symptoms of the disease such
as fatigue, vomiting or altered consciousness, however,
only appear at an advanced stage of its development when
possible complications become a serious threat to life (in
the most advanced stage, the mortality rate reaches up
to 50%!). Kidney damage, which occurs in the late stages
of the disease, may be permanent and require continued
dialysis or even entire organ transplantation.
"Before acute kidney injury develops, the concentration
of lipocalin increases in patient's blood. So, we devised a
polymer in whose structure there are molecular cavities