Latest ArticlesHigh-sensitive quantitative determination of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is of crucial importance for early clinical diagnosis of cancers. Herein, an AuNPs-free electrochemical immunosensor (Ab1-Fc-COF) was prepared from a carboxylic group enriched COF by post-functionalization with detecting antibody (Ab1) and ferrocene (Fc), and used for electrochemical detection of AFP. Due to the small, homogeneous pore size of the COF, Ab1 with a big size was immobilized on the surface of the COF, while Fc with a small size was covalently modified both on the surface and in the pores of COF. The covalently immobilized Ab1 was quite stable and beneficial to specifically detect AFP biomarkers. Meanwhile, the enriched Fc molecules not only improved the conductivity of the COF, but also effectively transferred and amplified the electrochemical signal. This proposed immunosensor exhibited high sensitivity in detecting AFP with a detection limit of 0.39 pg/mL (S/N of 3:1) and a wide linear response range spanning from 1 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL when plotted against logarithmic concentrations. Furthermore, this immunosensor showed excellent selectivity, stability and reproducibility in the testing of real samples. This study presents an innovative prototype for construction of a precious metal-free, antibody-directly-immobilized, simple and stable electrochemical immunoprobe.
Human health is seriously jeopardized by infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms. The current traditional disinfection technologies have many defects, such as producing harmful by-products, being affected by water turbidity, and high energy consumption. The growing concern for microbial safety has brought non-thermal plasma (NTP) disinfection technology into the spotlight. NTP is a promising disinfection technology with advantages such as environmental protection, safety, room temperature disinfection, short disinfection cycle, and wide applicability. Researchers are continuously optimizing NTP reactions to improve disinfection efficiency. This paper provides an integrated analysis of both plasma disinfection in water and plasma-activated water (PAW) disinfection on object surfaces. NTP can directly treat bacterial contaminated water, and can also be employed to produce PAW as a disinfectant for treating bacteria on surfaces. This review introduces the fundamental concepts and commonly used equipment related to NTP technology, analyzes the influencing factors and mechanisms of disinfection, and concludes by outlining the future directions of NTP technology in the field of disinfection. We hope to provide a reference for the research and practice of bacterial pollution issues.
Plant-related organic compound (PROC) may interact with redox-active metals like iron while they are present in soil or aquatic environment, but their effects on the photoreduction of Fe(Ⅲ) remain largely unexplored. This study investigates the photochemical behavior of Fe(Ⅲ)-PROC complexes using alkaline lignin (AL), betaine hydrochloride (BH), and phytic acid (PA) as representative proxies for PROC. The reductive agent AL demonstrated the ability to directly reduce Fe(Ⅲ) to Fe(Ⅱ). In contrast, BH, being unable to form strong complexes with Fe(Ⅲ), was able to quench •OH, thereby resulting in a shift of the redox equilibrium towards Fe(Ⅱ). PA exhibited a strong binding affinity for Fe(Ⅲ), effectively inhibiting its photoreduction. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis, utilizing 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as a spin trap, revealed that the DMPO-OH signal detected in photolyzed Fe(Ⅲ)-PROC solutions originated from various pathways. Specifically, uncomplexed Fe(Ⅲ) in AL or BH solutions was shown to oxidize DMPO directly, leading to the formation of a false DMPO-OH adduct. The addition of ethanol to the photolyzed Fe(Ⅲ)-AL and Fe(Ⅲ)-BH systems resulted in the generation of the DMPO-CH(CH3)OH adduct, thereby confirming the presence of authentic •OH in these systems. The photolysis of the Fe(Ⅲ)-PA complex may proceed via a photodissociation mechanism, where the resulting loosely bound Fe(Ⅲ) can oxidize DMPO, followed by a nucleophilic attack from water. This research highlights the multifaceted roles of PROC in facilitating the redox cycling of iron within soil and aquatic ecosystems.
In the pharmaceutical field, machine learning can play an important role in drug development, production and treatment. Co-crystallization techniques have shown promising potential to enhance the properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as solubility, permeability, and bioavailability, all without altering their chemical structure. This approach opens new avenues for developing natural products into effective drugs, especially those previously challenging in formulation. Emodin, an anthraquinone-based natural product, is a notable example due to its diverse biological activities; however, its physicochemical limitations, such as poor solubility and easy sublimation, restricted its clinical application. While various methods have improved emodin's physicochemical properties, research on its bioavailability remains limited. In our study, we summarize cocrystals and salts produced through co-crystallization technology and identify piperazine as a favorable coformer. Conflicting conclusions from computational chemistry and molecular modeling method and machine learning method regarding the formation of an emodin-piperazine cocrystal or salt led us to experimentally validate these possibilities. Ultimately, we successfully obtained the emodin-piperazine cocrystal, which were characterized and evaluated by several in vitro methods and pharmacokinetic studies. In addition, experiments have shown that emodin has a certain therapeutic effect on sepsis, so we also evaluated emodin-piperazine biological activity in a sepsis model. The results demonstrate that co-crystallization significantly enhances emodin's solubility, permeability, and bioavailability. Pharmacodynamic studies indicate that the emodin-piperazine cocrystal improves sepsis symptoms and provides protective effects against liver and kidney damage associated with sepsis. This study offers renewed hope for natural products with broad biological activities yet hindered by physicochemical limitations by advancing co-crystallization as a viable development approach.
Nowadays, higher requirements are put forward to the storage and utilization of energy, and supercapacitor is a kind of energy storage electronic devices. The resulting CA-N, with a specific surface area of 320.6 m2/g and a pore volume of 0.28 cm3/g, demonstrated a remarkable supercapacitance of 283.3 F/g. As a mesoporous material, CA-N offers numerous channels for the diffusion and absorption of electrolyte ions. Furthermore, it exhibited an impressive capacity retention rate of 98.48% after 5000 charge-discharge cycles. These outstanding electrochemical properties highlight the potential of CA-N for applications in energy storage.
Pyrimidine is a widely used compound in pesticides and medicine, with over 60 commercial pesticides containing a pyrimidine structure. Examples include the insecticide flufenerim, herbicide nicosulfuron, fungicide mepanipyrim, antiviral agent ningnanmycin, and plant growth regulator ancymidol. This paper reviews the characteristics from 2014 to 2024 of highly active pyrimidine-containing compounds and their biological activities, focusing on insecticidal, herbicidal, antibacterial, antiviral, and plant growth regulation properties. The goal is to provide insights for the design and synthesis of new pyrimidine-based pesticide candidates.
Oxidative magnetization has attracted great attention as an efficient strategy for modulating physiochemical properties of magnetic biochar. In this paper, a K2FeO4-involving hydrothermal oxidative magnetization was explored to regulate multiple micro-structures for manufacture magnetic hydrochar (MHC) for Fenton-like degradation of tetracycline in aqueous solution. Diverse shapes of Fe3O4 and nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) were doped with abundant oxygen containing groups and persistent free radicals (PFRs). Multiple catalysis sites including iron species, PFRs, oxygen containing groups, and graphite defects contributed to accelerate the Fenton-like degradation with synergistic effect. Notably, MHC achieved a tetracycline removal rate of 99% within 60 min at 50 mg/L, with a total organic carbon (TOC) removal rate of 35%. Furthermore, after four cycles of reuse, the degradation efficiency slightly decreased to 93%. This study highlights the potential of magnetic hydrochar with multiple catalytic sites in the effective and sustainable degradation of pollutants.
Among various advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), heterogeneous catalytic ozonation has garnered extensive attention in wastewater treatment owing to its broad pH range applicability and the elimination of the need for additional energy input. Enhancing catalyst activity by introducing oxygen vacancies has been used extensively in heterogeneous catalytic ozonation. This paper reviews prevalent methods for the construction and characterization of oxygen vacancies. Based on a thorough examination of existing research, the role of oxygen vacancies is categorized according to their primary mechanisms of action in heterogeneous catalytic ozonation. For example, modulation of the catalyst electronic structure to enhance electron transfer; participation in the reaction as an active site to generate radicals and non-radicals; and exposure of more metal sites to enhance the reaction. Lastly, the paper delineates the limitations and future research directions concerning the role of oxygen vacancies in catalytic ozonation. This review addresses the gap in existing literature concerning the role of oxygen vacancies in catalytic ozone systems, establishes a comprehensive theoretical framework to aid in the design of efficient ozone catalysts, and delves into the functionality of oxygen vacancies in heterogeneous catalytic ozone reactions.
Simultaneous identification and quantitative detection of phenylenediamine (PDA) isomers, including o-phenylenediamine (OPD), m-phenylenediamine (MPD), and p-phenylenediamine (PPD), are essential for environmental risk assessment and human health protection. However, current visual detection methods can only distinguish individual PDA isomers and failed to identify binary or ternary mixtures. Herein, a highly active and ultrastable peroxidase (POD)–like CoPt graphitic nanozyme was used for naked-eye identification and colorimetric/fluorescent (FL) dual-mode quantitative detection of PDA isomers. The CoPt@G nanozyme effectively catalyzed the oxidation of OPD, MPD, PPD, OPD + PPD, OPD + MPD, MPD + PPD and OPD + MPD + PPD into yellow, colorless, lilac, yellow, yellow, wine red and reddish-brown products, respectively, in the presence of H2O2. Thus, the MPD, PPD, MPD + PPD and OPD + MPD + PPD were easily identified based on the distinct color of their oxidation products, and the OPD, OPD + PPD, OPD + MPD could be further identified by the additional addition of MPD or PPD. Subsequently, CoPt@G/H2O2-, a 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)/CoPt@G/H2O2-, and MPD/CoPt@G/H2O2-enabled colorimetric/FL dual-mode platforms for the quantitative detection of OPD, MPD and PPD were proposed. The experimental results illustrated that the constructed sensing platforms exhibit satisfactory sensitivity, comparable to that reported in previous studies. Finally, the evaluation of PDAs in water samples was realized, yielding satisfactory recoveries. This work expanded the application prospects of nanozymes in assessing environmental risks and protection of human security.
Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) membrane protein profile (sEVpp) is a novel biomarker for cancer, and it can reveal the in-depth phenotype information. The point-of-care testing (POCT) of sEVpp holds great significance for mass screening of cancer, so the cost-effective and simple detection methods of sEVpp are urgently demanded. Herein, we constructed a paper-based multichannel sEVpp POCT device (sEVpp-PAD) enabled by functional DNA probes and metal-organic framework (MOF). The core components are aptamer/MOF-modified paper chips. The modified aptamers can immunocapture the sEV expressing corresponding proteins, while the modified MOF can provide abundant sites for aptamer-modification, reduce the nonspecific protein absorption, and act as reference for ratiometric detection. Simply powered by two syringes, the sEVpp-PAD can efficiently capture sEVs expressing corresponding protein from cell culture media and sera. Furthermore, a detection probe (DP) consisted of CD63 aptamer and G-quadruplex was developed for the colorimetric detection of captured sEVs. Utilizing this device, the sEVpp in various hepatocellular carcinoma cell culture medium and, more importantly, in human sera can be accurately determined, only with ＄2 device, ＄0.2 detection reagents and 1.8 h procedure. This simple strategy for sEVpp detection can innovatively promote the POCT and subtyping of cancer based on sEV-related liquid biopsy.
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