Latest ArticlesAccurate quantitation of site-specific mRNA mutation in single cells or in peripheral blood is of great significance for both biological and biomedical studies. How to eliminate the false-positive interference from the abundant normal mRNA is still a big challenge. Herein, we have proposed an LNA (locked nucleic acid)-assisted high-specificity strategy which can selectively guide the RNase H to cleave only the wildtype mRNA (wtRNA) while the mutant mRNA (mutRNA) will remain intact. The intact mutRNA can be amplified and detected by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR but the disconnected wtRNA will be not replicated at all. Based on the highly selective depletion of wtRNA, this elegant design effectively avoids the false-positive interference from the high background of normal mRNA and thus can guarantee the accurate and reliable detection of rare mutRNA in real biomedical samples. Besides for the excellent specificity, ultrahigh sensitivity is also achieved for this proposed assay, which allows the quantification of mutRNA at single molecule and single cell level. Due to its easy design, high sensitivity and specificity, the established LNA probe-assisted RT-PCR strategy provides a powerful tool for studying the function of mutRNA at the single cell level and for the mutRNA-associated liquid biopsy.
Rapid and simultaneous in situ detection of multi-components is extremely crucial for the real-time monitoring of nutrients in fruits. Herein, a facile and user-friendly poly(carboxybetaine methacrylate)-coated paper-based microfluidic device (pCBMA-njPAD) has been exploited to synchronously identify and semi-quantify vitamin C, glucose, sucrose and fructose in fruits. The pCBMA was successfully grafted from the surface of paper sensor using a convenient and robust method, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). The superior hydrophilicity and ultra-low fouling of pCBMA endowed the pCBMA-μPAD with remarkably rapid response (3 min), high sensitivity, good linear relationship and low detection limit (LOD) (vitamin C: y = 33.809 + 5.175x, R2 = 0.993, LOD = 0.179 mmol/L; glucose: y = -0.113 + 30.066lg(x), R2 = 0.988, LOD = 0.095 mmol/L; sucrose: y = -5.334 + 34.858lg(x), R2 = 0.996, LOD = 0.097 mmol/L; fructose: y = 4.996 + 23.325lg(x), R2 = 0.994, LOD = 0.140 mmol/L). Furthermore, satisfactory results were yielded in the detection of these nutrients in 9 fruits, which were much agreed well with those obtained by spectrophotometry. Such a portable and versatile pCBMA-μPAD will profoundly shape the future of food analysis, especially for the assessment of food quality and nutrition in the process of agricultural production and marketing.
Bioorthogonal cleavage and ligation reactions together form one more integrated system about the repertoire of bioorthogonal chemistry, capacitating an array of thrilling new biological applications. The bond-cleavage type and position of biomolecular remain a great challenge, which determines the metabolic pathway of the targets in living systems. Herein we designed two linkages of methylene and carbonyl group attached the N-3 position of the 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) base or the oxygen atom at deoxyribose 3' position to a photocaging group, which would be cleaved by irradiation with 365 nm ultraviolet light. EdU derivatives linked by methylene at the N-3 position had better photodecage efficiency and stability in the absence of light. This paper provides a strategy for studying the nucleoside metabolic pathways in cells, which can easily and conveniently evaluate the effect of the position and type of the linkages. The developed strategy affords a reference for controlling spatial and temporal metabolism of small-molecule drugs, allowing direct manipulation of intact cells under physiological conditions.
The exploitation of multifunctional nanocomposites is highly desired in environmental monitoring, biosensors, and medical diagnosis. In this paper, a simple approach has been proposed to fabricate MoS2 decorated N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs@MoS2) hybrid composites as efficient peroxidase-like mimics. The combination of the MoS2 and N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) brings about an enhanced synergistic effect, leading to remarkably decent intrinsic peroxidase-mimic activities than that of the single components. Due to the high catalytic efficiency of the resultant NCNTs@MoS2 hybrid nanotubes as peroxidase-like mimics, a convenient colorimetric approach for the sensitive determination of H2O2 and ascorbic acid have been developed with a detection limit of about 0.14 μmol/L and 0.12 μmol/L, respectively. The work offers a new strategy for the fabrication of peroxidase-like nanomaterials with excellent catalytic activity, which indicates great promising applications in sensitive detections in real samples.
Herein, a WO3-CuWO4 nanostructured heterojunction was prepared by a facile two-step hydrothermal method. It is composed of a WO3 square microplate and CuWO4 nanoparticles. Then, the gas sensing properties were investigated under optimal operating temperature (120 ℃). The WO3-CuWO4 heterostructure shows good sensing performance towards n-butanol, with a response value up to 9.4 to towards 30 ppm n-butanol, and the response value is about 3 times higher than that of pristine WO3. Its detection limit for n-butanol is 0.1 ppm, which indicates a potential application in lower concentration detection. Moreover, the response time of WO3-CuWO4 nanostructured heterojunction and the pristine WO3 are 21 s and 240 s respectively, revealing that there is a faster gas sensing process in the heterostructure. A possible sensing mechanism was then proposed on the basis of experimental data and band structure analysis. The significant enhancement of WO3-CuWO4 heterostructure could be attributed to the formation of heterojunction, which brings electronic sensitization and electron transport pathway modulation. The work offered a kind of novel and cost-effective sensing materials, and inspired more novel devices based on nanostructured heterojunction mechanism.
Mesoporous semiconducting metal oxides (SMOs) heterojunctions are appealing sensors for gas detecting. However, due to the different hydrolysis and condensation mechanism of every metal precursor and the contradiction between high crystallinity and high surface area, the synthesis of mesoporous SMOs heterojunctions with highly ordered mesostructures, highly crystallized frameworks, and high surface area remains a huge challenge. In this work, we develop a novel "acid-base pair" adjusted solvent evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) strategy to prepare highly crystallized ordered mesoporous TiO2/WO3 (OM-TiO2/WO3) heterojunctions. The WCl6 and titanium isopropoxide (TIPO) are used as the precursors, respectively, which function as the "acid-base pair", enabling the coassembly with the structure directing agent (PEO-b-PS) into highly ordered mesostructures. In addition, PEO-b-PS can be converted to rigid carbon which can protect the mesostructures from collapse during the crystallization process. The resultant OM-TiO2/WO3 heterojunctions possess primitive cubic mesostructures, large pore size (~21.1 nm), highly crystalline frameworks and surface area (~98 m2/g). As a sensor for acetone, the obtained OM-TiO2/WO3 show excellent response/recovery performance (3 s/5 s), good linear dependence, repeatability, selectivity, and long-term stability (35 days).
In this study, flower-like MoS2 constructed by nanosheets was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The hydrothermal process was optimized and the effects of hydrothermal condition, including reaction temperature, reaction time and the ratio of Mo source to S source (Mo:S) in precursor, on microwave absorption performances and dielectric properties were investigated. Our results showed that when the reaction temperature was 180℃, the reaction time was 18 h, and the Mo:S was 1:3.5, the synthesized MoS2 had the best performance:Its minimum reflection loss could reach -55.78 dB, and the corresponding matching thickness was 2.30 mm with a wide effective bandwidth of 5.17 GHz. Further researches on the microwave absorption mechanism revealed that in addition to the destructive interference of electromagnetic waves, various polarization phenomena such as defect dipole polarization were the main reasons for microwave loss. We believe that MoS2 is a candidate for a practical microwave absorbent.
Stimuli-responsive polypeptides have been intensively investigated for controlled drug release, owing to their favorable biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this work, we designed and synthesized a new kind of polypeptide bearing 1, 4-dithiane pendants for reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive drug release. The polypeptide-based block copolymer was facilely synthesized by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of 1, 4-dithian-substituted L-glutamate N-carboxyanhydride (DTG-NCA) monomer using an amino-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (mPEG-NH2) as the macromolecular initiator. The resultant block copolymer, mPEG-b-PDTG, could self-assemble into uniform micelles in aqueous medium owing to its amphiphilic structure. Then, the H2O2-triggered oxidation behaviors of the mPEG-b-PDTG micelles were studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS), FT-IR and turbidimetric assay. It was revealed that the oxidation of thioether into sulfoxide in the side chains would result in disassembly of the micelles. Furthermore, the ROS-responsive drug release behavior of the mPEG-b-PDTG micelles was verified by using Nile Red as a model drug. MTT assay also proved that mPEG-b-PDTG was non-toxic in B16F10 and L929 cells. Therefore, such a new class of oxidation-responsive polypeptide might provide a promising platform for ROS-responsive drug delivery.
Due to the serious harm of diabetes to human health, development of sensitive assays for glucose level is of high significance for early prevention and treatment of diabetes. Currently, most conventional enzyme-based glucose sensors suffer from high cost and low stability due to the inherent defects of natural enzymes. Herein, we develop a pure nanozyme-based glucose detection method using Ag@Au core/shell triangular nanoplates (TNPs), which combines glucose oxidase (GOD)-and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activities of the Au shell and inherent plasmonic properties of Ag TNPs. The sensing mechanism is based on the fact that the Au shell possessed GOD-like activity, enabling the oxidation of glucose to produce H2O2, which can further etch the silver core, leading to the decrease of absorbance at 800 nm and the color change from blue to colorless. Compared with the previous nanozymes-based glucose sensors, our method avoids the use of enzymes and organic chromogenic agent. Moreover, the stability of the Ag@Au core/shell TNPs is much better than that of Ag TNPs due to the protection by the coating of the Au shell. This method was successfully applied to the detection of urine samples from patients with diabetes, indicating its practical applicability for real sample analysis.
Here, we use two important biomaterials, protein and DNA, to construct self-assembled linear nanostructures through Watson-Crick base-paring of DNAs. We apply a simple magnetic separation method to purify traptavidin-DNA conjugates, and demonstrate synthesis of linear arrays of traptavidinDNA conjugates via the step-growth polymerization approach with pre-determined DNA sequences. Using the traptavidin-DNA array as a template, we assemble gold nanoparticles to form linear plasmonic nanostructures in a programmable manner. The traptavidin-DNA conjugates thus provide a convenient platform for one-dimensional assembly of biotinylated nanomaterials for many biomedical applications from drug delivery to bio-sensing.
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