Metabolic fingerprinting of Schistosoma mansoni infection in mice urine with capillary electrophoresis

Schistosoma mansoni infection in mice has been fingerprinted using CE to study the capabilities of this technique as a diagnostic tool for this parasitic disease. Two modes of separation were used in generating the electrophoretic data, with each untreated urine sample the following methods were applied: (i) a fused-silica capillary, operating with an applied potential of 18 kV, in micellar EKC (MEKC) and (ii) a polyacrylamide-coated capillary, operating with an applied potential of -20 kV under zonal CZE conditions. By combining normal and reverse polarities in the data treatment we have extracted more information from the samples, which is a better approach for CE metabolomics. The traditional problems associated with variability in electrophoretic peak migration times for analytes were countered by using a dynamic programming algorithm for the electropherograms alignment. Principal component analyses of these aligned electropherograms and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) data are shown to provide a valuable means of rapid and sample classification. This approach may become an important tool for the identification of biomarkers, diagnosis and disease surveillance.     

Detection of amyloid-beta by Fmoc-KLVFF self-assembled fluorescent nanoparticles for Alzheimer's disease diagnosis

The abnormal aggregation of amyloid-beta(Aβ) has been widely believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Alz heimer's disease(AD),which is also recognized as one of the main biomarkers for AD diagnosis.The peptide sequence Lys-Leu-Val-Phe-Phe(KLVFF) is considered as the main driver of the fibrillation of Aβ,which also can be utilized to target Aβ and inhibit its aggregation.In this study,KLVFF and Fmoc-KLVFF fluorescent nanoparticles were self-assembled through zinc coordination and π-πstacking.The recognition of Aβ aggregates including oligomers and fibrils by fluorescent nanoparticles can be realized through aromatic,hydrophobic,and hydrogen-bond interactions.The fluorescent nanoprobes can distinguish Aβ aggregation formats and detect Aβ at the limit of 1 pg/mL(S/N=3).Hence,the detection of Aβ aggregates by fluorescent peptide nanoparticles has great potential for AD diagnosis and progression prediction.     

基于DNA分子的纳米功能材料的设计、组装及应用

DNA除了作为一种遗传信息的载体分子之外,还可以通过折叠或组装从而形成特定的二维和三维结构。通过设计DNA分子的结构并探索其与纳米材料之间的相互作用的研究已经引起了国内外学术界的持续关注。DNA功能化的无机纳米材料促进了分析科学、生命科学以及环境科学的快速发展。本文将从疾病分子机制研究、疾病诊断和疾病治疗三个角度出发,探究面向生物医学分析应用的DNA分子功能化的无机纳米材料的设计与组装。除此之外,还对DNA功能化纳米材料技术的发展前景进行了展望。     

CH4/H2和CH4/He体系等离子体发射光谱分析

 在CH₄/H₂和CH₄/He和CH₄/He两种系统中,利用光学发射谱技术对螺旋波放电产生低压甲烷等离子体内活性粒子的光学发射特征进行了原位诊断。在实验中,两种体系下同时都测得的主要荷电粒子为CH,Ha,Hb,Hg以及H2等。研究了各实验参数对这些活性粒子CH, Ha,Hb以及Hg的发射光谱强度的影响。结果表明：在CH₄/H₂体系下,随着射频功率的增大,Ha,Hb,Hg以及CH基团的相对强度都随着增加,而当放电气压变化时它们都呈现先增大而后减小的趋势。在CH₄/He体系下,随射频功率的增加,Ha,Hb,Hg以及CH相对强度变化的总体趋势也都是先增加而后减小,当工作气压增加时,Ha,Hb以及Hg的相对强度变化也是呈现先增大而后减小,但CH基团的相对强度却是逐渐减小的;这些结果为等离子体沉积各种薄膜过程的理解及制备工艺参数的调整提供了参考。     

Coding Intrinsic Disorder into DNA Hybridization Probes Enables Discrimination of Single Nucleotide Variants over Wide and Tunable Temperature Ranges

DNA hybridization probes are commonly used tools to discriminate clinically important single nucleotide variants (SNVs) but often work at elevated temperatures with very narrow temperature intervals (ΔT). Herein, we investigated the thermodynamic basis of the narrow ΔT both in silico and experimentally. Our study revealed that the high entropy penalty of classic hybridization probe designs was the key attributor for the narrow ΔT. Guided by this finding, we further introduced an entropy-compensate probe (Sprobe) design by coding intrinsic disorder into a stem-loop hybridization probe. Sprobe expanded ΔT from less than 10 °C to over 30 °C. Moreover, both ΔT and the optimal reaction temperature can be fine-tuned by simply altering the length of the loop domain. Sprobe was clinically validated by analyzing EGFR L858R mutation in 36 pairs of clinical tumor tissue samples collected from lung cancer patients, which revealed 100 % clinical sensitivity and specificity. We anticipate that our study will serve as a general guide for designing thermal robust hybridization probes for clinical diagnostics.     

Artificial Urinary Biomarkers for Early Diagnosis of Acute Renal Allograft Rejection

Acute renal allograft rejection (ARAR) after kidney transplantation associated with reduced graft survival and eventual graft failure is poorly diagnosed in hospitals. Here, we report the development of A rtificial bioM arker Pro bes (AMPros) for sensitive urinalysis of ARAR in murine models. AMPros spontaneously go to the kidneys after systemic administration, specifically react with the prodromal immune biomarkers to activate their near-infrared fluorescence signals to report cell-mediated rejection, and efficiently undergo renal excretion into urine. Thus, AMPros enable convenient optical urinalysis that detects ARAR prior to histological manifestation of rejection, which is also earlier than current diagnostic methods measuring proinflammatory cytokines and peripheral blood lymphocyte mRNAs. Due to the high kidney specificity, AMPros-based urinalysis discriminates allograft rejection against other non-alloimmune specific diseases, which is unattainable by measurement of serological biomarkers. Such a noninvasive and sensitive urine test holds great promise in continuous monitoring of renal allograft conditions at low resource settings for timely clinical interventions.     

4D-proteomics-based breast cancer progressionEI北大核心CSCD

：The occurrence and development of breast cancer go through multiple processes，and the protein molecular information in its evolution is intricate and complex. The 4D-proteomics technique was used to investigate the tumor progression of MMTV-PyMT transgenic mice. The results of protein identification and differential expression analysis showed that a total of 5819 proteins were identified in 4D-proteomics analysis and 5667 proteins were quantifiable. Compared with 3-week-old tumors，a total of 270 differentially expressed proteins were found in the 5-week-old tumors，while 255 proteins in the 7-week-old tumors. We also detected 23 of proteins （such as，Srpk11 and Tinagl1）with gradual up-regulation and 35 of proteins （such as，Pdgfrb， Col1a2 and Col1a1）with gradual down-regulation during the tumor progression，including 3-，5-and 7-weeks. We also performed bioinformatics analysis，including subcellular localization，GO function analysis and pathway enrichment analysis. The results showed that the biological processes（immune regulation and lipid metabolism） and enrichment pathways （metabolic pathway）involved in differentially expressed proteins remained the same during the tumor progression，but some cellular components and molecular functions changed，such as，protein locations were extracellular region and membrane in 5-weeks-old tumors as well as cytoplasm in 7-weeks-old tumors. And important protein functions were protein binding functions in 5-weeks-old tumors as well as nucleotide binding in 7-weeks-old tumors. The acquired protein biomarkers and pathways could help with the accurate exploration of molecular mechanisms of tumor progression，screening of molecular targets of breast cancer，and evaluation of personalized treatment programs. © 2023, Youke Publishing Co.,Ltd. All rights reserved.     

Metal-based nanoparticles for cardiovascular disease diagnosis and therapy

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most prominent cause of disability and mortality in the world. Although there have been a variety of therapeutic options for the management of CVDs, most of the traditional therapeutic strategies could not sufficiently stop or reduce the progression of these diseases and may result in some side effects. With the advance in nanotechnology, a number of metal-based nanoparticles have been developed and shown promising potentials in the treatment of CVDs. In this review, we provide a comprehensive review of researches on recent development of metal-based nanoparticles in diagnosis and therapy in CVDs as biomedical materials. We also discuss the challenges in the clinical translation and potential risks in their application of CVD therapy. Based on the ongoing research and applications, we can conclude metal-based nanoparticles are expected to become potential therapeutics for the treatment of CVDs. But their application is still in its infancy and much more efforts should be made to enforce a clinical breakthrough.