The aim of the here presented study was to combine high performance liquid chromatography with plate reader technology in order to overcome certain drawbacks of integrated online systems as well as offline plate reader approaches. The described method combines an "at-line" enzyme assay for the simultaneous bioactivity determination with parallel QTOF MS data acquisition for analyte identification. All biochemical reagents are added in an online mode directly to the column effluent (postcolumn addition/mixing), and the complete screening assay mixture is subsequently microfractionated into a 1536 well plate. The screening of a natural extract fortified with two well-known Protein Kinase A inhibitors and the identification of an inhibitor in a natural extract showed the applicability of the approach to detect bioactive compounds in low concentrations in a complex mixture. The described mode of operation utilizes today's plate reader technology to its full capacity and directly hyphenates it to a high resolution separation technique which has not been shown before. Furthermore, it allows coupling of a microbore HPLC with a biochemical screening assay without compromising resolution and overcomes problems associated with the 1536 well format.

Background Spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB) is a major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide and defining its risk factors is necessary to reduce its prevalence. Recent studies have pointed out that bacterial vaginosis, a disturbance in the vaginal microbiome, is associated with SPTB. It is hypothesized that vaginal hygiene practices can alter the vaginal microbiome and are therefore associated with SPTB, but there are no studies investigating this matter. Methods and findings A case-control study was conducted between August 2018 and July 2021 in two affiliated university medical centers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We included a total of 79 women with a SPTB and compared them with 156 women with a term birth. Women with uterine anomalies, a history of cervical surgery or major congenital anomalies of the fetus were excluded. All participants filled in a questionnaire about vaginal washing with water, soap or gel, the use of intravaginal douches and vaginal steaming, both before and during pregnancy. Most women washed vaginally with water, 144 (61.3%) women before pregnancy and 135 (57.4%) women during pregnancy. A total of 43 (18.3%) washed with soap before and 36 (15.3%) during pregnancy. Before pregnancy, 40 (17.0%) women washed with vaginal gel and 27 (11.5%) during pregnancy. We found that the use of vaginal gel before pregnancy (aOR 2.29, 95% CI: 1.08–4.84) and even more during pregnancy, was associated with SPTB (aOR 3.45, 95% CI: 1.37–8.67). No association was found between washing with water or soap, intravaginal douching, or vaginal steaming and SPTB. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the use of vaginal gel is associated with SPTB. Women should be informed that vaginal use of gels might not be safe.

Despite considerable research and attempts to enhance prevention and treatment, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the number one cause of death among women in developed countries, where it causes about 55% of the deaths. 1 Gender differences in the clinical presentation and in the response to therapy of CVD are known to impede the decrease of cardiovascular burden in women. Studies have found that the prevalence of risk factors of CVD differs between men and women. 2 For example, the risk of CVD mortality is higher in women with diabetes than in men with diabetes,

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