α-Tocopherolquinone

Lyme disease serodiagnosis has limited early sensitivity and cannot distinguish active from past infections. To address this, we screen a Borrelia afzelii whole-proteome microarray (1,296 proteins) using human (n = 149) and murine (n = 32) sera. We evaluate three early-stage antigens-BafPKo_A0001, BafPKo_D0016, and BafPKo_A0029. ELISA cutoffs are established using discovery cohort sera (n = 99) and validated with the validation (n = 242) and the prospective (n = 223) cohorts. A0001 demonstrates 87.8% sensitivity, outperforming C6 (69.4%) and STTT (22.5%) in the discovery cohort. In the validation cohort, A0001 reaches 90.5% sensitivity, surpassing C6 by 11.6% and STTT by 50%. In hyper-acute erythema migrans sera (from the prospective cohort), A0001 achieves 55.1% sensitivity, exceeding C6 and STTT by 14.6% and 33.3%, respectively. COMBO-3 and COMBO-2 yield the highest sensitivity of 92.9% and 66.1% in the validation and prospective cohort, respectively. A0001 and D0016 show enhanced and robust seroreversion after antibiotic treatment suggesting their potential as test of cure biomarkers in early Lyme disease.

Conductive polymers have become crucial in advancing various electronic applications. While p‐type materials like poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) are widely used and produced at scale, the development of high‐performance n‐type polymers has lagged due to challenges in synthesis and scalability. In this work, a novel method is introduced to synthesize the highly conductive n‐type polymer poly(benzodifurandione) (PBFDO) using α‐tocopherylquinone (α‐TQ) as a catalyst. This approach eliminates the need for post‐reaction dialysis, a major obstacle to large‐scale PBFDO production. By preventing catalyst aggregation, high electrical conductivity (>1320 S cm−1) is achieved, which remains stable in air for over 180 d, significantly simplifying the process. The α‐TQ‐synthesized PBFDO also exhibits excellent thermoelectric properties, with a power factor exceeding 100 µW m−1 K−2, placing it among the highest‐performing n‐type thermoelectric polymers. Additionally, residual α‐TQ acts as a plasticizer, reducing the elastic modulus by over tenfold while maintaining high conductivity, making this material suitable for mechanically compliant electronics. Similarly, residual α‐TQ lowers the thermal conductivity of PBFDO by more than an order of magnitude. The process is scalable, as demonstrated by producing high‐conductivity ink in a 20 L reactor. This work presents an efficient and sustainable approach for large‐scale n‐type polymer production.