Fabrication and response of alpha-hydroxybutyrate sensors for rapid assessment of cardiometabolic disease risk

Metabolite profiles of diabetes mellitus and response to intervention in anti-hyperglycemic drugs

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become a major health problem, threatening the quality of life of nearly 500 million patients worldwide. As a typical multifactorial metabolic disease, T2DM involves the changes and interactions of various metabolic pathways such as carbohydrates, amino acid, and lipids. It has been suggested that metabolites are not only the endpoints of upstream biochemical processes, but also play a critical role as regulators of disease progression. For example, excess free fatty acids can lead to reduced glucose utilization in skeletal muscle and induce insulin resistance; metabolism disorder of branched-chain amino acids contributes to the accumulation of toxic metabolic intermediates, and promotes the dysfunction of β-cell mitochondria, stress signal transduction, and apoptosis. In this paper, we discuss the role of metabolites in the pathogenesis of T2DM and their potential as biomarkers. Finally, we list the effects of anti-hyperglycemic drugs on serum/plasma metabolic profiles.

Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Nanoflower Production and Analytical Utilization: Fundamental to Cutting-Edge Technologies

Over the past decade, science has experienced a growing rise in nanotechnology with ground-breaking contributions. Through various laborious technologies, nanomaterials with different architectures from 0 D to 3 D have been synthesized. However, the 3 D flower-like organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterial with the most direct one-pot green synthesis method has attracted widespread attention and instantly become research hotspot since its first allusion in 2012. Mild synthesis procedure, high surface-to-volume ratio, enhanced enzymatic activity and stability are the main factor for its rapid development. However, its lower mechanical strength, difficulties in recovery from the reaction system, lower loading capacity, poor reusability and accessibility of enzymes are fatal, which hinders its wide application in industry. This review first discusses the selection of non-enzymatic biomolecules for the synthesis of hybrid nanoflowers followed by the innovative advancements made in organic-inorganic hybrid nanoflowers to overcome aforementioned issues and to enhance their extensive downstream applications in transduction technologies. Besides, the role of hybrid nanoflower has been successfully utilized in many fields including, water remediation, biocatalyst, pollutant adsorption and decolourization, nanoreactor, biosensing, cellular uptake and others, accompanied with several quantification technologies, such as ELISA, electrochemical, surface plasmon resonance (SPR), colorimetric, and fluorescence were comprehensively reviewed.