Synergetic PtNP@Co3O4 hollow nanopolyhedrals as peroxidase-like nanozymes for the dual-channel homogeneous biosensing of prostate-specific antigen

Nanozymes for biomedical applications: Multi-metallic systems may improve activity but at the cost of higher toxicity?

Nanozymes are nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like activity with selected advantages over native enzymes such as simple synthesis, controllable activity, high stability, and low cost. These materials have been explored as surrogates to natural enzymes in biosensing, therapeutics, environmental protection, and many other fields. Among different nanozymes classes, metal- and metal oxide-based nanozymes are the most widely studied. In recent years, bi- and tri-metallic nanomaterials have emerged often showing improved nanozyme activity, some of which even possess multifunctional enzyme-like activity. Taking this concept even further, high-entropy nanomaterials, that is, complex multicomponent alloys and ceramics like oxides, may potentially enhance activity even further. However, the addition of various elements to increase catalytic activity may come at the cost of increased toxicity. Since many nanozyme compositions are currently being explored for in vivo biomedical applications, such as cancer therapeutics, toxicity considerations in relation to nanozyme application in biomedicine are of vital importance for translation. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies Toxicology and Regulatory Issues in Nanomedicine > Toxicology of Nanomaterials Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices.

Prostate-Specific Antigen as an Ultrasensitive Biomarker for Patients with Early Recurrent Prostate Cancer: How Low Shall We Go? A Systematic Review

Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) needs to be monitored with ultrasensitive PSA assays (uPSAs) for oncologists to be able to start salvage radiotherapy (SRT) while PSA is <0.5 µg/L for patients with prostate cancer (PCa) relapsing after a radical prostatectomy (RP). Our systematic review (SR) aimed to summarize uPSAs for patients with localized PCa. The SR was registered as InPLASY2023110084. We searched for studies on Google Scholar, PUBMED and reference lists of reviews and studies. We only included studies on uPSAs published in English and excluded studies of women, animals, sarcoidosis and reviews. Of the 115 included studies, 39 reported PSA assay methods and 76 reported clinical findings. Of 67,479 patients, 14,965 developed PSA recurrence (PSAR) and 2663 died. Extremely low PSA nadir and early developments of PSA separated PSAR-prone from non-PSAR-prone patients (cumulative p value 3.7 × 1012). RP patients with the lowest post-surgery PSA nadir and patients who had the lowest PSA at SRT had the fewest deaths. In conclusion, PSA for patients with localized PCa in the pre-PSAR phase of PCa is strongly associated with later PSAR and survival. A rising but still exceedingly low PSA at SRT predicts a good 5-year overall survival.

Recent Progress and Prospect of Metal-Organic Framework-Based Nanozymes in Biomedical Application

A nanozyme is a nanoscale material having enzyme-like properties. It exhibits several superior properties, including low preparation cost, robust catalytic activity, and long-term storage at ambient temperatures. Moreover, high stability enables repetitive use in multiple catalytic reactions. Hence, it is considered a potential replacement for natural enzymes. Enormous research interest in nanozymes in the past two decades has made it imperative to look for better enzyme-mimicking materials for biomedical applications. Given this, research on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a potential nanozyme material has gained momentum. MOFs are advanced hybrid materials made of inorganic metal ions and organic ligands. Their distinct composition, adaptable pore size, structural diversity, and ease in the tunability of physicochemical properties enable MOFs to mimic enzyme-like activities and act as promising nanozyme candidates. This review aims to discuss recent advances in the development of MOF-based nanozymes (MOF-NZs) and highlight their applications in the field of biomedicine. Firstly, different enzyme-mimetic activities exhibited by MOFs are discussed, and insights are given into various strategies to achieve them. Modification and functionalization strategies are deliberated to obtain MOF-NZs with enhanced catalytic activity. Subsequently, applications of MOF-NZs in the biosensing and therapeutics domain are discussed. Finally, the review is concluded by giving insights into the challenges encountered with MOF-NZs and possible directions to overcome them in the future. With this review, we aim to encourage consolidated efforts across enzyme engineering, nanotechnology, materials science, and biomedicine disciplines to inspire exciting innovations in this emerging yet promising field.

Nanozymes and carbon-dots based nanoplatforms for cancer imaging, diagnosis and therapeutics: Current trends and challenges

Cancer patients face a significant clinical and socio-economic burden due to increased incidence, mortality, and poor survival. Factors like late diagnosis, recurrence, drug resistance, severe side effects, and poor bioavailability limit the scope of current therapies. There is a need for novel, cost-effective, and safe diagnostic methods, therapeutics to overcome recurrence and drug resistance, and drug delivery vehicles with enhanced bioavailability and less off-site toxicity. Advanced nanomaterial-based research is aiding cancer biologists by providing solutions for issues like hypoxia, tumor microenvironment, low stability, poor penetration, target non-specificity, and rapid drug clearance. Currently, nanozymes and carbon-dots are attractive due to their low cost, high catalytic activity, biocompatibility, and lower toxicity. Nanozymes and carbon-dots are increasingly used in imaging, biosensing, diagnosis, and targeted cancer therapy. Integrating these materials with advanced diagnostic tools like CT scans and MRIs can aid in clinical decision-making and enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy, photothermal, photodynamic, and sonodynamic therapies, with minimal invasion and reduced collateral effects.

MOF-derived porous carbon nanozyme-based flexible electrochemical sensing system for in situ and real-time monitoring of H2O2 released from cells

A novel flexible electrochemical sensor based on porous carbon nanosheets (PCNSs) nanozyme has been constructed for in situ and real-time monitoring of H2O2 released by cells. The PCNSs are prepared with the integration of thermal transformation, thermal activation and sonochemical exfoliation by using zeolitic imidazolate frameworks as template. The PCNSs exhibit high electrical conductivity, electrochemical activity and peroxidase-like catalytic properties, which is beneficial to H2O2 assay. With the transfer printing method, the flexible electrochemical sensor is obtained, which has excellent performances for H2O2 electrochemical detecting with wide linear range from 1 μM to 20 mM and a low detection limit of 0.76 μM. Owing to the great biocompatibility, the flexible sensor guarantees the growth of living cells for 72 h and realizes in situ and real-time monitoring the release of H2O2 from HeLa cells. The strategy of porous nanozyme preparation and flexible sensor construction provided a promising way for in situ and real-time assay of small molecules in the cellular microenvironment.

Signal Amplification Strategy Design in Nanozyme-Based Biosensors for Highly Sensitive Detection of Trace Biomarkers

Nanozymes show great promise in enhancing disease biomarker sensing by leveraging their physicochemical properties and enzymatic activities. These qualities facilitate signal amplification and matrix effects reduction, thus boosting biomarker sensing performance. In this review, recent studies from the last five years, concentrating on disease biomarker detection improvement through nanozyme-based biosensing are examined. This enhancement primarily involves the modulations of the size, morphology, doping, modification, electromagnetic mechanisms, electron conduction efficiency, and surface plasmon resonance effects of nanozymes for increased sensitivity. In addition, a comprehensive description of the synthesis and tuning strategies employed for nanozymes has been provided. This includes a detailed elucidation of their catalytic mechanisms in alignment with the fundamental principles of enhanced sensing technology, accompanied by the presentation of quantitatively analyzed results. Moreover, the diverse applications of nanozymes in strip sensing, colorimetric sensing, electrochemical sensing, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering have been outlined. Additionally, the limitations, challenges, and corresponding recommendations concerning the application of nanozymes in biosensing have been summarized. Furthermore, insights have been offered into the future development and outlook of nanozymes for biosensing. This review aims to serve not only as a reference for enhancing the sensitivity of nanozyme-based biosensors but also as a catalyst for exploring nanozyme properties and their broader applications in biosensing.

Effect of composite conjugated materials on tissue healing during exercise rehabilitation training

The application of traditional materials to tissue healing in sports rehabilitation training has problems such as poor effect, high rejection reaction, and slow healing speed. It also brings many challenges to the development of sports rehabilitation training. This article aims to explore the impact of composite conjugated materials on tissue healing to promote rapid and efficient tissue healing and improve the effect of sports rehabilitation training. Through research and analysis, this article found that composite conjugated materials have unique biocompatibility and can promote cell growth and differentiation. In skin tissue healing, composite conjugated materials can control the release rate and duration of drugs to promote skin healing. During the fracture healing process, conjugated materials can provide growth factors and extracellular matrix components, stimulate bone cell proliferation and differentiation, and promote fracture healing. In terms of soft tissue injuries, composite conjugated materials serve as supporting structures or matrices, providing a favorable environment for the regeneration of damaged tissue. In the regulation of inflammatory responses, composite conjugated materials reduce inflammatory responses and accelerate the healing process by modulating immune responses. The results of this study show that 1 week after the experiment, the skin healing rates of the control group and the experimental group were 42.55% and 58.17% respectively; 5 weeks after the experiment, the skin healing rates of the control group and the experimental group were 51.28% and 73.24% respectively. After 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks of experiment, it was found that the average tissue repair rates of the control group were 44.03%, 54.18%, 58.40%, 67.08%, and 72.09% respectively, and the average tissue repair rates of the experimental group were 52.18%, 61.91%, 63.40%, 74.61%, and 85.05% respectively. This study highlights the huge potential of composite conjugated materials in promoting tissue healing and tissue repair, and is of great significance for promoting technological progress in the field of sports rehabilitation and improving rehabilitation effects.

A flexible and wearable three-electrode electrochemical sensing system consisting of a two-in-one enzyme-mimic working electrode

In this work, a wearable and flexible three-electrode electrochemical sensing system (TESS) by using a two-in-one enzyme-mimic working electrode (TIOWE) is reported. The integrated three-electrode, including working electrodes, reference electrodes, and counter electrodes are formed by transfer printing of Ni2P-based composite electrode ink (Ni2P/G ink), Ag/AgCl ink, and carbon ink onto PDMS substrate, respectively. The Ni2P/G ink-based working electrodes have both good conductivity and enzyme-mimic catalytic activity towards glucose. Under optimized conditions, the TIOWE-TESS has a low detection limit of 0.37 μM and wide linear ranges of 0.001 mM-0.1 mM and 0.1 mM-1.4 mM. Furthermore, the TIOWE-TESS has good applicability in serum samples and reveals remarkable electrochemical performance at fluctuant working temperatures. The proposed TIOWE-TESS can be integrated on a waterproof bandage to fabricate a skin-friendly patch device for sweet glucose monitoring, which highlights its potential applications in flexible and wearable commercial devices for health-monitoring.

Application of water-soluble conjugated polymers in intelligent measurement and control of food microbial fermentation process

In order to reduce the difficulty of measurement and control (MAC) during food fermentation, this paper applies water-soluble conjugated polymers to sensors, conducts data modeling and prediction, and integrates the sensors into intelligent MAC systems. This article uses fermentation rate, product yield, and energy consumption efficiency as evaluation indicators to analyze the effectiveness of smart MAC. By comparing and analyzing the MAC method based on water-soluble conjugated polymers with the traditional MAC method, this article found that the MAC method based on water-soluble conjugated polymers can improve product yield, fermentation efficiency and energy utilization compared with traditional MAC methods. The MAC accuracy, timeliness, stability, speed and security of the MAC system based on water-soluble conjugated polymers are higher than those of traditional MAC systems. Among them, the average test stability of the traditional MAC system is 19.93% lower than that of the smart MAC system based on water-soluble conjugated polymers. Research shows that the intelligent MAC method based on water-soluble conjugated polymers can effectively improve the fermentation environment of food microorganisms and improve product quality, and is worthy of further promotion.

Biomolecule-functionalized nanoformulations for prostate cancer theranostics

BACKGROUND

Even with the advancement in the areas of cancer nanotechnology, prostate cancer still poses a major threat to men's health. Nanomaterials and nanomaterial-derived theranostic systems have been explored for diagnosis, imaging, and therapy for different types of cancer still, for prostate cancer they have not delivered at full potential because of the limitations like in vivo biocompatibility, immune responses, precise targetability, and therapeutic outcome associated with the nanostructured system.

AIM OF REVIEW

Functionalizing nanomaterials with different biomolecules and bioactive agents provides advantages like specificity towards cancerous tumors, improved circulation time, and modulation of the immune response leading to early diagnosis and targeted delivery of cargo at the site of action.

KEY SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS OF REVIEW

In this review, we have emphasized the classification and comparison of various nanomaterials based on biofunctionalization strategy and source of biomolecules such that it can be used for possible translation in clinical settings and future developments. This review highlighted the opportunities for embedding highly specific biological targeting moieties (antibody, aptamer, oligonucleotides, biopolymer, peptides, etc.) on nanoparticles which can improve the detection of prostate cancer-associated biomarkers at a very low limit of detection, direct visualization of prostate tumors and lastly for its therapy. Lastly, special emphasis was given to biomimetic nanomaterials which include functionalization with extracellular vesicles, exosomes and viral particles and their application for prostate cancer early detection and drug delivery. The present review paves a new pathway for next-generation biofunctionalized nanomaterials for prostate cancer theranostic application and their possibility in clinical translation.

An efficient multi-enzyme cascade platform based on mesoporous metal-organic frameworks for the detection of organophosphorus and glucose

An efficient colorimetric detection platform based on multi-enzyme cascade has been developed for detection of organophosphorus. Firstly, the dual-enzyme platform was prepared and applied for sensitive glucose detection (detection limit 0.32 μM). And then three enzymes, including acetylcholinesterase, horseradish peroxidase and choline oxidase were encapsulated in cruciate flower-like zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (CF-ZIF-8) through one-step co-precipitation to construct detection platform with acetylcholine chloride as substrate. The acephate inhibited the activity of acetylcholinesterase, obstructed the cascade reaction and reduced the production of H₂O₂, resulting in the changes of color intensity for the colorimetric detection. With suitable size and porous structure, CF-ZIF-8 provided a good microenvironment for guaranteeing the activity and spatial proximity of enzymes. The multi-enzyme platform displayed great performances with the detection limit of 0.23 nM for acephate. It was applied to the detection of acephate in Chinese cabbage and romaine, verifying the practicability of this platform.

A novel electrochemical biosensor based on MIL-101-NH2 (Cr) combining target-responsive releasing and self-catalysis strategy for p53 detection

A novel electrochemical biosensor was constructed to detect p53 gene based on MIL-101-NH₂ (Cr) by combining target-responsive releasing and self-catalysis strategy. MIL-101-NH₂ (Cr) with suitable pore structure was used to encapsulate methylene blue (MB) as signal probe. The hairpin DNA (HP) containing rich-G sequences was used as gatekeeper to seal up the pores and avoid MB leakage through covalent immobilization. The p53 gene could hybridize with the loop portion of HP for the formation of dsDNA, which had the specific nicking site of the nicking endonuclease (Nt.BstNBI). Then Nt.BstNBI recognized the specific recognition site and cleaved HP to open the pore for releasing of MB. Meanwhile, the cleavage of HP released the target DNA to trigger the target recycling for signal amplification. More importantly, the plentiful rich-G sequences were exposed to form Hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzymes, which could unite MIL-101-NH₂ (Cr) to catalyze redox reaction of MB released by itself for signal amplification. The biosensor for p53 had wide linear range from 1 × 10^-14 to 1 × 10^-7 M and a low detection limit of 1.4 × 10^-15 M. The combination of target-responsive releasing and self-catalysis strategy provided a promising way for constructing ultrasensitive and simple biosensor.

Colorimetric and Fluorescence Dual-Mode Biosensors Based on Peroxidase-Like Activity of the Co3O4 Nanosheets

The mimic enzyme has become a research hotspot in recent years because of its advantages of high stability, convenient preparation, and low price. In this article, Co₃O₄ nanosheets synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method possess the characteristics of a peroxidase-like activity. The results demonstrated that 3,3′,5,5′-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) could be oxidized by H₂O₂ to produce a typical blue product (oxTMB) which has a strong absorption at 650 nm wavelength with the help of the Co₃O₄ nanosheets. Thus, a simple and sensitive colorimetric detection method for H₂O₂ was established with a good linear relationship (2–200 μM) and a low limit of detection (0.4 μM). Meanwhile, the colorimetric product can effectively quench the fluorescence emitted by Ru(bpy)₃²⁺. Therefore, a colorimetric and fluorescence dual detection mode photochemical sensor for H₂O₂ detection is constructed based on the principle of the inner filter effect (IFE) between the colorimetric product (oxTMB) and Ru(bpy)₃²⁺. It can effectively avoid the false positive problem of a single detection mode. In the presence of glucose oxidase, glucose can be catalyzed to produce gluconic acid and H₂O₂; therefore, the sensor can also be used for the determination of glucose with a good linear relationship (0.02–2 μM) and a low limit of detection (5 nM). Experimental results showed that the sensor has a high sensitivity and strong anti-interference ability which can be used for the detection of actual samples.