Microstructured Cystine Dendrites-Based Impedimetric Sensor for Nucleic Acid Detection

In Situ Real-Time Dendritic Growth Determination of Electrodeposits on Ultramicroelectrodes

Monitoring the dendritic electrodeposition process is crucial in various fields such as energy storage devices and sensors. A variety of in situ dendritic growth monitoring methods have been developed, especially for battery applications, but they require specialized cells and equipment and are often invasive, making them unsuitable for various electrochemical systems and commercial batteries. To address these challenges, a real-time impedance analysis technique was used to determine dendritic electrodeposition on microelectrodes. The "effective size" of the electrodeposit was extracted from the impedance data, and the dendritic growth was assessed in real-time by comparing "effective size" to a theoretical radius assuming hemispherical growth. The technique was validated using scanning electron microscopy imaging and finite element method simulation. Initially applied to gold electrodeposition, the method was extended to zinc electrodeposition, demonstrating potential utilization for energy storage systems.

Crystalline structures of L-cysteine and L-cystine: a combined theoretical and experimental characterization

It is assumed that genetic diseases affecting the metabolism of cysteine and the kidney function lead to two different kinds of pathologies, namely cystinuria and cystinosis whereby generate L-cystine crystals. Recently, the presence of L-cysteine crystal has been underlined in the case of cystinosis. Interestingly, it can be strikingly seen that cystine ([-S-CH₂-CH-(NH₂)-COOH]₂) consists of two cysteine (C₃H₇NO₂S) molecules connected by a disulfide (S-S) bond. Therefore, the study of cystine and cysteine is important for providing a better understanding of cystinuria and cystinosis. In this paper, we elucidate the discrepancy between L-cystine and L-cysteine by investigating the theoretical and experimental infrared spectra (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as Raman spectra aiming to obtain a better characterization of abnormal deposits related to these two genetic pathologies.

Dual platform based sandwich assay surface-enhanced Raman scattering DNA biosensor for the sensitive detection of food adulteration

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) DNA biosensing is an ultrasensitive, selective, and rapid detection technique with the ability to produce molecule-specific distinct fingerprint spectra. It supersedes the long amplicon based PCR assays, the fluorescence and spectroscopic techniques with their quenching and narrow spectral bandwidth, and the electrochemical detection techniques using multiplexing. However, the performance of the SERS DNA biosensor relies on the DNA probe length, platform composition, both the presence and position of Raman tags and the chosen sensing strategy. In this context, we herein report a SERS biosensor based on dual nanoplatforms with a uniquely designed Raman tag (ATTO Rho6G) intercalated short-length DNA probe for the sensitive detection of the pig species Sus scrofa. In the design of the signal probe (SP), a Raman tag was incorporated adjacent to the spacer arm, followed by a terminal thiol modifier, which consequently had a strong influence on the SERS signal enhancement. The detection strategy involves the probe-target DNA hybridization mediated coupling of the two platforms, i.e., the graphene oxide-gold nanorod (GO-AuNR) functionalized capture probe (CP) and SP-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), consequently enhancing the SERS intensity by both the electromagnetic hot spots generated at the junctions or interstices of the two platforms and the chemical enhancement between the AuNPs and the adsorbed intercalated Raman tag. This dual platform based SERS DNA biosensor exhibited outstanding sensitivity in detecting pork DNA with a limit of detection (LOD) of 100 aM validated with DNA extracted from a pork sample (LOD 1 fM). Moreover, the fabricated SERS biosensor showed outstanding selectivity and specificity for differentiating the DNA sequences of six closely related non-target species from the target DNA sequences with single and three nucleotide base-mismatches. Therefore, the developed short-length DNA linked dual platform based SERS biosensor could replace the less sensitive traditional methods of pork DNA detection and be adopted as a universal detection approach for the qualitative and quantitative detection of DNA from any source.

Design and application of a fluorogenic receptor for selective sensing of cations, small neutral molecules, and anions

An unprecedented single multi-analyte fluorogenic receptor, a sodium salt of N-(methyl-2-thiophenyl)-tyrosine (NaHTyrthio), is reported for the selective sensing of cations (Cu²⁺), small neutral molecules (nitrobenzene and aniline) and anions (F⁻) by variable spectral responses.

Detection and Identification of Hematologic Malignancies and Solid Tumors by an Electrochemical Technique

Purpose

Develop and evaluate an electrochemical method to identify healthy individuals, malignant hematopathic patients and solid tumor patients by detecting the leukocytes in whole-blood.

Methods

A total of 114 individual blood samples obtained from our affiliated hospital in China (June 2015- August 2015) were divided into three groups: healthy individuals (n = 35), hematologic malignancies (n = 41) and solid tumors (n = 38). An electrochemical workstation system was used to measure differential pulse voltammetry due to the different electrochemical behaviors of leukocytes in blood samples. Then, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to analyze the scanning curves and to compare the peak potential and peak current.

Results

The scanning curve demonstrated the specific electrochemical behaviors of the blank potassium ferricyanide solution and that mixed with blood samples in different groups. Significant differences in mean peak potentials of mixture and shifts (ΔEp (mV)) were observed of the three groups (P< = 0.001). 106.00±9.00 and 3.14±7.48 for Group healthy individuals, 120.90±11.18 and 18.10±8.81 for Group hematologic malignancies, 136.84±11.53 and 32.89±10.50 for Group solid tumors, respectively. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the peak currents and shifts.

Conclusions

The newly developed method to apply the electrochemical workstation system to identify hematologic malignancies and solid tumors with good sensitivity and specificity might be effective, suggesting a potential utility in clinical application.

Gold nanoparticle decorated graphene sheet-polypyrrole based nanocomposite: its synthesis, characterization and genosensing application

We report herein the synthesis of gold nanoparticle (GNP) decorated-graphene sheets (GO-GNPs) using the template of graphene oxide (GO) by a one-pot solution-based method. A polypyrrole-GO decorated GNP nanocomposite (GO-GNP/PPY) has been electropolymerized using a potentiodynamic method on an indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. The as-synthesized nanocomposites are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy. It has been found that GNPs of ca. 13 nm are uniformly dispersed on the surface of GO, and have a high electrochemically active surface area. The surface morphology studies show that PPY structure changes from nanoflowers to nanostars and then to nanosheets with an increase in the scan rate (20-200 mV s(-1)). The prepared GO-GNP/PPY/ITO electrode was further used as a genosensor, where the electrochemical response was measured using methylene blue (MB) as a redox indicator. The genosensor shows a response time of 60 s with high sensitivity (1 × 10(-15) M) and linearity (1 × 10(-15)-1 × 10(-6) M) with the correlation coefficient of 0.9975.

Hierarchical cystine flower based electrochemical genosensor for detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7

Synthesis and self-assembly of cystine flowers on gold electrode for biosensing application.

Cationic poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) iron oxide microspheres for nucleic acid detection

Herein, we envisage the possibility of preparing stable cationic poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres encapsulating the iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs; 8-12 nm). The IONPs are incorporated into PLGA in organic phase followed by microsphere formation and chitosan coating in aqueous medium via nano-emulsion technique. The average size of the microspheres, as determined by dynamic light scattering are about 310 nm, while the zeta potential for the composite remains near 35 mV at pH 4.0. These microspheres are electrophoretically deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate used as cathode and parallel platinum plate as the counter electrode. This platform is utilized to fabricate a DNA biosensor, by immobilizing a probe sequence specific to Escherichia coli. The bioelectrode shows a surface-controlled electrode reaction with the electron transfer coefficient (α) of 0.64 and charge transfer rate constant (k(s)) of 61.73 s(-1). Under the optimal conditions, this biosensor shows a detection limit of 8.7 × 10(-14) M and is found to retain about 81% of the initial activity after 9 cycles of use.

Chitosan encapsulated quantum dots platform for leukemia detection

We report results of the studies relating to electrophoretic deposition of nanostructured composite of chitosan (CS)-cadmium-telluride quantum dots (CdTe-QDs) onto indium-tin-oxide coated glass substrate. The high resolution transmission electron microscopic studies of the nanocomposite reveal molecular level coating of the CdTe-QDs with CS molecules in the colloidal dispersion medium. This novel composite platform has been explored to fabricate an electrochemical DNA biosensor for detection of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) by immobilizing amine terminated oligonucleotide probe sequence containing 22 base pairs, identified from BCR-ABL fusion gene. The results of differential pulse voltammetry reveal that this nucleic acid sensor can detect as low as 2.56 pM concentration of complementary target DNA with a response time of 60s. Further, the response characteristics show that this fabricated bioelectrode has a shelf life of about 6 weeks and can be used for about 5-6 times. The results of experiments conducted using clinical patient samples reveal that this sensor can be used to distinguish CML positive and the negative control samples.

Nanopatterned cadmium selenide Langmuir-Blodgett platform for leukemia detection

We present results of the studies relating to preparation of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers of tri-n-octylphosphine oxide-capped cadmium selenide quantum dots (QCdSe) onto indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. The monolayer behavior has been studied at the air-water interface under various subphase conditions. This nanopatterned platform has been explored to fabricate an electrochemical DNA biosensor for detection of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) by covalently immobilizing the thiol-terminated oligonucleotide probe sequence via a displacement reaction. The results of electrochemical response studies reveal that this biosensor can detect target DNA in the range of 10(-6) to 10(-14) M within 120 s, has a shelf life of 2 months, and can be used about 8 times. Further, this nucleic acid sensor has been found to distinguish the CML-positive and the control negative clinical patient samples.