Assessment of Cellulose Nanofiber-Based Elastase Biosensors to Inflammatory Disease as a Function of Spacer Length and Fluorescence Response

Inflammatory disease biomarker detection has become a high priority in point-of-care diagnostic research in relation to chronic wounds, with a variety of sensor-based designs becoming available. Herein, two primary aspects of biosensor design are examined: (1) assessment of a cellulose nanofiber (CNF) matrix derived from cotton ginning byproducts as a sensor transducer surface; and (2) assessment of the relation of spacer length and morphology between the CNF cellulose backbone and peptide fluorophore as a function of sensor activity for porcine pancreatic and human neutrophil elastases. X-ray crystallography, specific surface area, and pore size analyses confirmed the suitability of CNF as a matrix for wound care diagnostics. Based upon the normalized degree of substitution, a pegylated-linker connecting CNF transducer substrate to peptide fluorophore showed the greatest fluorescence response, compared to short- and long-chain alkylated linkers.

Curcumin Sustained Release with a Hybrid Chitosan-Silk Fibroin Nanofiber Containing Silver Nanoparticles as a Novel Highly Efficient Antibacterial Wound Dressing

Drug loading in electrospun nanofibers has gained a lot of attention as a novel method for direct drug release in an injury site to accelerate wound healing. The present study deals with the fabrication of silk fibroin (SF)-chitosan (CS)-silver (Ag)-curcumin (CUR) nanofibers using the electrospinning method, which facilitates the pH-responsive release of CUR, accelerates wound healing, and improves mechanical properties. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of the solution parameters on the nanofiber diameter and morphology. The nanofibers were characterized via Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), zeta potential, and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). CS concentration plays a crucial role in the physical and mechanical properties of the nanofibers. Drug loading and entrapment efficiencies improved from 13 to 44% and 43 to 82%, respectively, after the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles. The application of CS hydrogel enabled a pH-responsive release of CUR under acid conditions. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay on E. coli and S. aureus bacteria showed that nanofibers with lower CS concentration cause stronger inhibitory effects on bacterial growth. The nanofibers do not have any toxic effect on cell culture, as revealed by in vitro wound healing test on NIH 3T3 fibroblasts.

Synthesis of wool roll-like silver nanoflowers in an ethanol/water mixture and their application to detect traces of the fungicide carbendazim by SERS technique

The Raman signal enhancement ability of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique is largely determined by the SERS substrate, which is usually a collection of precious metal (such as silver or gold) nanoparticles. For use in the SERS substrate, anisotropic metal nanoparticles, e.g. flower-like, will be preferred over the isotropic ones since they will give higher Raman enhancement. The problem is that it is very difficult to fabricate anisotropic metal nanoparticles as small as the isotropic ones that are best suited for use as SERS substrates. This study deals with the synthesis of wool roll-like silver nanoflowers (AgNFs) in a mixed ethanol/water solution instead of the usual aqueous solution when reducing silver nitrate with ascorbic acid in the presence of citric acid, which acts as a structure-directing agent. The size of the wool roll-shaped AgNFs was reduced from about 700 nm when the solution was purely aqueous to about 280 nm when in the mixed solution the ethanol/water volume ratio was 75/25. Thanks to the size reduction of AgNFs, the enhancement factor of SERS substrates made from them has increased dramatically, from 2.7 × 10⁶ when the size of AgNFs is 700 nm to 5.4 × 10⁹ when their size is 280 nm (the calculation is based on rhodamine 6G Raman and SERS spectroscopy). The application of the above AgNFs to recording the SERS spectrum of carbendazim (CBZ), a typical fungicide, at low concentrations has also shown that the smaller the size of the AgNFs, the higher the intensity of the CBZ characteristic bands. The wool roll-shaped AgNFs with a size of 280 nm allowed CBZ to be detected down to a concentration of 0.01 ppm (4.2 × 10⁻⁸ M) with a detection limit of 3.2 ppb (13.4 × 10⁻⁹ M).

Wool roll-like silver nanoflowers of different sizes were obtained by reducing AgNO₃ with ascorbic acid in the presence of citric acid in a mixed ethanol/water solution with different volume ratios.

An "on-off" ratio photoluminescence sensor based on catalytically induced PET effect by Fe3O4 NPs for the determination of coumarin

Herein, using Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄ NPs) as a magnetic artificial peroxidase, an "on-off" ratiometric photoluminescence sensor with high-sensitivity and high-selectivity for coumarin was constructed based on photoinduced electron transfer (PET) between 7-hydroxycoumarin and rhodamine B (RB). The results showed that Fe₃O₄ NPs catalyzed H₂O₂ to generate nucleophilic group ·OH, which attacked the active site of coumarin and produced strong fluorescent 7-hydroxycoumarin molecules. Then, the fluorescence of RB was quenched with 7-hydroxycoumarin through the PET effect. The ratio signal generated in the above process was used for the quantitative detection of coumarin. Under optimized conditions, the linear range 0.5-25 mg/L was acquired for coumarin with the detection limit of 0.016 mg/L. This method had excellent selectivity and the recovery rate was 81.8%-106.8% with the relative standard deviation less than 5.6%, so it can be used for the quantitative analysis of coumarin in complex matrix samples.

Application of Raman Spectroscopic Methods in Food Safety: A Review

Food detection technologies play a vital role in ensuring food safety in the supply chains. Conventional food detection methods for biological, chemical, and physical contaminants are labor-intensive, expensive, time-consuming, and often alter the food samples. These limitations drive the need of the food industry for developing more practical food detection tools that can detect contaminants of all three classes. Raman spectroscopy can offer widespread food safety assessment in a non-destructive, ease-to-operate, sensitive, and rapid manner. Recent advances of Raman spectroscopic methods further improve the detection capabilities of food contaminants, which largely boosts its applications in food safety. In this review, we introduce the basic principles of Raman spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and micro-Raman spectroscopy and imaging; summarize the recent progress to detect biological, chemical, and physical hazards in foods; and discuss the limitations and future perspectives of Raman spectroscopic methods for food safety surveillance. This review is aimed to emphasize potential opportunities for applying Raman spectroscopic methods as a promising technique for food safety detection.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Rapid Screening of Cinnamon Essential Oils

Cinnamon essential oil is used in food flavoring, food preservation, and for complementary medicine. The most common types of cinnamon used in essential oils are true cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) and cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia). True cinnamon is commonly adulterated with cassia cinnamon because it is cheaper. However, cassia cinnamon contains higher concentrations of coumarin which has been shown to have adverse health effects. There is a need to develop simple, nondestructive, rapid screening methods for quality control and food authentication and to identify adulteration of cinnamon essential oil. Currently, the most common methods to screen for coumarin in cinnamon include high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). However, these methods require time-consuming sample preparation and detection. Vibrational spectroscopy methods are emerging as a promising alternative for rapid, nondestructive screening for food safety applications. In this study, a rapid screening method has been developed to examine cinnamon essential oils using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The experimental spectra were compared to theoretical calculations using the DFT method BP86/6-311++G(d,p) basis set. The limit of detection of coumarin was determined to be 1 × 10^-6 M or 1.46 mg/L using SERS with colloid paste substrates. Furthermore, 1:16 dilutions of cinnamaldehyde and 1:8 dilutions of eugenol were detected using SERS which can help determine if the cinnamon essential oil was made from bark or from leaves. Seven commercially available cinnamon essential oils were also analyzed and compared to reference solutions. SERS was able to discriminate between essential oils primarily composed of cinnamaldehyde and those composed of eugenol. Furthermore, the SERS method detected peaks that are attributed to coumarin in two of the commercially available samples. To date, this is the first time SERS has been used to rapidly screen cinnamon essential oils.

Attomolar Sensing Based on Liquid Interface-Assisted Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering in Microfluidic Chip by Femtosecond Laser Processing

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a multidisciplinary trace analysis technique based on plasmonic effects. The development of SERS microfluidic chips has been exploited extensively in recent times impacting on applications in diverse fields. However, despite much progress, the excitation of label-free molecules is extremely challenging when analyte concentrations are lower than 1 nM because of the blinking SERS effect. In this paper, a novel analytical strategy which can achieve detection limits at an attomolar level is proposed. This performance improvement is due to the use of a glass microfluidic chip that features an analyte air-solution interface which forms on the SERS substrate in the microfluidic channel, whereby the analyte molecules aggregate locally at the interface during the measurement, hence the term liquid interface-assisted SERS (LI-SERS). The microfluidic chips are fabricated using hybrid femtosecond (fs) laser processing consisting of fs laser-assisted chemical etching, selective metallization, and metal surface nanostructuring. The novel LI-SERS technique can achieve an analytical enhancement factor of 1.5 × 10¹⁴, providing a detection limit below 10^-17 M (<10 aM). The mechanism for the extraordinary enhancement afforded by LI-SERS is attributed to Marangoni convection induced by the photothermal effect.

Coumarins content in wine: application of HPLC, fluorescence spectrometry, and chemometric approach

In this work, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fluorescence spectrometry methods for determination of natural coumarins in Tokaj wine were developed and compared. Molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction procedure was applied for sample preparation. The separation of esculin, coumarin, herniarin, 4-methylumbelliferone, scoparone, scopoletin was performed on core-shell C18 type of stationary phase (100 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) with a gradient elution of mobile phase containing 1% aqueous solution of acetic acid and methanol, UV-VIS (280 nm for coumarin) and fluorescence detection (Ex 320 nm, Em 450 nm for other coumarins). The HPLC method was validated in term of linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, precision and accuracy. Fluorescence detection offers high sensitivity with limit of detection in the ng mL^-1 range. Scopoletine and 4-methylumbelliferone were identified and quantified in tested wines. Emission spectral data, synchronous fluorescence spectra of coumarins from fluorescence spectrometry and total concentrations of coumarins quantified by the HPLC method were used in the partial least squares regression. The linear regression between the concentrations predicted by the partial least squares model versus true values obtained by HPLC method confirmed good agreement between the two methods.

Coumarin-Based Small-Molecule Fluorescent Chemosensors

Coumarins are a very large family of compounds containing the unique 2H-chromen-2-one motif, as it is known according to IUPAC nomenclature. Coumarin derivatives are widely found in nature, especially in plants and are constituents of several essential oils. Up to now, thousands of coumarin derivatives have been isolated from nature or produced by chemists. More recently, the coumarin platform has been widely adopted in the design of small-molecule fluorescent chemosensors because of its excellent biocompatibility, strong and stable fluorescence emission, and good structural flexibility. This scaffold has found wide applications in the development of fluorescent chemosensors in the fields of molecular recognition, molecular imaging, bioorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, materials chemistry, as well as in the biology and medical science communities. This review focuses on the important progress of coumarin-based small-molecule fluorescent chemosensors during the period of 2012-2018. This comprehensive and critical review may facilitate the development of more powerful fluorescent chemosensors for broad and exciting applications in the future.