微纳电化学传感界面的构建及其用于单细胞实时监测

细胞是生物体形态结构和生命活动的基本单位.常规检测群体细胞的方法往往会掩盖细胞间的个体差异,因此亟需发展高效的单细胞分析策略,深入研究细胞生命活动过程,揭示疾病发生发展机制,推动个体化诊疗.超微电化学传感器具有尺寸小、灵敏度高、时空分辨率高等特点,在单细胞实时动态监测方面发挥了非常重要的作用.目前,微纳电化学传感器在电极制备、高性能传感界面构建、理论分析等方面已取得重要进展,且在单细胞实时监测及相关细胞机制研究方面取得突破.然而,单细胞内环境复杂、活性分子浓度低且随时空高度动态变化,这对微纳电化学传感器的灵敏度和选择性等综合性能提出了更高要求.我们课题组长期从事基于微纳电化学传感的单细胞与亚细胞实时动态监测研究,本文主要介绍了我们近10年来在该领域的研究进展,并对未来的挑战与机遇进行了探讨.     

Bioactive Components of Salvia and Their Potential Antidiabetic Properties: A Review

The utilization of therapeutic plants is expanding around the globe, coupled with the tremendous expansion of alternative medicine and growing demand in health treatment. Plants are applied in pharmaceuticals to preserve and expand health—physically, mentally and as well as to treat particular health conditions and afflictions. There are more than 600 families of plants identified so far. Among the plants that are often studied for their health benefit include the genus of Salvia in the mint family, Lamiaceae. This review aims to determine the bioactive components of Salvia and their potential as antidiabetic agents. The search was conducted using three databases (PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus), and all relevant articles that are freely available in the English language were extracted within 10 years (2011–2021). Salvia spp. comprises many biologically active components that can be divided into monoterpenes, diterpenes, triterpenes, and phenolic components, but only a few of these have been studied in-depth for their health benefit claims. The most commonly studied bioactive component was salvianolic acids. Interestingly, S. miltiorrhiza is undoubtedly the most widely studied Salvia species in terms of its effectiveness as an antidiabetic agent. In conclusion, we hope that this review stimulates more studies on bioactive components from medicinal plants, not only on their potential as antidiabetic agents but also for other possible health benefits.     

Multiphase Flow Regime Characterization and Liquid Flow Measurement Using Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Multiphase flow metering with operationally robust, low-cost real-time systems that provide accuracy across a broad range of produced volumes and fluid properties, is a requirement across a range of process industries, particularly those concerning petroleum. Especially the wide variety of multiphase flow profiles that can be encountered in the field provides challenges in terms of metering accuracy. Recently, low-field magnetic resonance (MR) measurement technology has been introduced as a feasible solution for the petroleum industry. In this work, we study two phase air-water horizontal flows using MR technology. We show that low-field MR technology applied to multiphase flow has the capability to measure the instantaneous liquid holdup and liquid flow velocity using a constant gradient low flip angle CPMG (LFA-CPMG) pulse sequence. LFA-CPMG allows representative sampling of the correlations between liquid holdup and liquid flow velocity, which allows multiphase flow profiles to be characterized. Flow measurements based on this method allow liquid flow rate determination with an accuracy that is independent of the multiphase flow profile observed in horizontal pipe flow for a wide dynamic range in terms of the average gas and liquid flow rates.     

Bulk derivatization and cation exchange restricted access media-based trap-and-elute liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method for determination of trace estrogens in serum

Estrone (E1), estradiols (α/β-E2), and estriol (E3) are four major metabolically active estrogens exerting strong biological activities at very low circulating concentrations. This paper reports a sensitive and efficient method with automated, on-line clean-up and detection to determine trace estrogens in a small volume of serum samples using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry directly, without off-line liquid–liquid or solid-phase extraction pretreatments. Serum aliquots (charcoal stripped fetal bovine serum, 100 μL) were spiked with four estrogen standards and their corresponding isotope-labeled internal standards, then bulk derivatized with 2-fluoro-1-methyl-pyridium p-toluenesulfonate (2-FMP) to establish the calibration curves and perform method validation. Calibration was established in the concentration ranges of 5–1000 pg mL⁻¹, and demonstrated good linearity of R² from 0.9944 to 0.9997 for the four derivatized estrogens. The lower detection limits obtained were 3–7 pg mL⁻¹. Good accuracy and precision in the range of 86–112% and 2.3–11.9%, respectively, were observed for the quality control (QC) samples at low, medium, and high concentration levels. The stability tests showed that the derivatized serum samples were stable 8 h after derivatization at room temperature and at least to 48 h if stored at −20 °C. The method was applied to measure trace estrogens in real human and bovine serum samples, and three of four estrogen compounds studied were observed and quantified.     

Tutorial review on validation of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry methods: Part I

This is the part I of a tutorial review intending to give an overview of the state of the art of method validation in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and discuss specific issues that arise with MS (and MS/MS) detection in LC (as opposed to the “conventional” detectors). The Part I briefly introduces the principles of operation of LC–MS (emphasizing the aspects important from the validation point of view, in particular the ionization process and ionization suppression/enhancement); reviews the main validation guideline documents and discusses in detail the following performance parameters: selectivity/specificity/identity, ruggedness/robustness, limit of detection, limit of quantification, decision limit and detection capability. With every method performance characteristic its essence and terminology are addressed, the current status of treating it is reviewed and recommendations are given, how to determine it, specifically in the case of LC–MS methods.     

New approach for natural products screening by real-time monitoring of hemoglobin hydrolysis using quartz crystal microbalance

The hemoglobin (Hb) released from erythrocytes is a primary nutritive component for many blood-feeding parasites. The aspartic protease cathepsin D is a hemoglobinase that is involved in the Hb degradation process and is considered an interesting target for chemotherapy intervention. However, traditional enzymatic assays for studying Hb degradation utilize spectrophotometric techniques, which do not allow real-time monitoring and can present serious interference problems. Herein, we describe a biosensor using simple approach for the real-time monitoring of Hb hydrolysis as well as an efficient screening method for natural products as enzymatic inhibitors using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique. Hemoglobin was anchored on the quartz crystal surface using mixed self-assembled monolayers. The addition of the enzyme caused a mass change (frequency shift) due to Hb hydrolysis, which was monitored in real time. From the frequency change patterns of the Hb-functionalized QCM, we evaluated the enzymatic reaction by determining the kinetic parameters of product formation (k_cat). The QCM enzymatic assay using immobilized human Hb was shown to be an excellent approach for screening possible inhibitors in complex mixtures, opening up a new avenue for the discovery of novel inhibitors.     

In-line monitoring flow in an extruder die by rheo-optics

A new modular slit die with optical windows in two different positions and three pressure transducers flush-mounted along the wall was built and coupled to the exit of a twin-screw extruder. Thus, the birefringence and the pressure drop of polystyrene were monitored inline during extrusion. Two experimental procedures were tested: steady-state and cessation of extruder feeding. The latter proved to be very useful in the case of polystyrene since the ratio between the birefringence and the pressure drop can be quantified for a wide range of steady-state conditions with a single experiment. In fact, down to relatively lower values of pressure drop, the birefringence proved to be a function of shear stress at the wall only, depending neither on the initial feeding rate nor on the aspect ratio of the slit die, for W/h down to 5, at least.     

新烟碱类杀虫剂生物活性的理论研究和结构修饰*

在B3LYP/6-311G基组水平下,运用密度泛函理论(DFT)的量子化学方法,对20种重氮乙烷新烟碱类杀虫剂分子的电子结构特征进行了研究,获得了它们的前线轨道能(EHOMO、ENHOMO、ELUMO、ENLUMO等)、原子电荷(Qi)、摩尔熵(Sm)、偶极矩(μ)等量化参数与物理性质。经最佳变量子集回归研究发现,重氮乙烷新烟碱类杀虫剂分子对果蝇n AChRs、哺乳动物α4β2亚型的亲和力常数(p KD、p KA)分别与ELUMO、QW、QF、QN等参数具有良好的线性关系。逐一或逐四剔除交互验证以及VIF、tα/2检验,所建2个QSAR模型具有良好的稳健性及预测能力。根据2个QSAR模型推断了重氮乙烷新烟碱类分子可能的杀虫机理。进一步研究发现,在重氮乙烷新烟碱类分子的吡啶环上的合适部位,选用不含复键的吸电子能力较强的取代基团对其进行结构修饰,有利于提高修饰后分子的生物活性。基于分子17,设计出4种经结构修饰后对果蝇n AChRs亲和力显著提高的重氮乙烷新烟碱类分子(分别是分子27,28,30和31),希望能得到实验的证实。     

4-硝基咪唑A-带激发态结构动力学

通过共振拉曼光谱实验和量子化学计算的方法研究了4-硝基咪唑(4NI)A-带激发态衰变动力学. 对4NI的振动光谱、紫外电子吸收光谱、荧光光谱和共振拉曼光谱进行了指认. 在全活化空间自洽场法(CASSCF)/6-31G(d)计算水平下获得了单重激发态S₁(n_Oπ^*)和S₂(ππ^*)和势能面交叉点S₁(n_Oπ^*)/S₂(ππ^*)的优化几何结构和能量, 分析了A-带共振拉曼光谱的强度模式特征, 获得了短时结构动力学, 并结合全活化空间自洽场法(CASSCF)理论计算结果确定了4NI 在S₂(ππ^*)态衰变通道主要是S_{2, FC}→S_{2, min}(ππ^*)→S₀辐射弛豫.     

聚合物结构对包膜缓释肥缓释性能的影响

研发和使用缓控释肥能有效解决普通肥料利用率低以及由于化肥使用过量而引起的环境问题。聚合物包膜型缓控释肥是缓控释肥中的一种,影响其缓释性能的因素如环境因素、包膜厚度、加工工艺等,前人已研究较多。聚合物结构对于缓释性能的影响也很重要,而这方面研究较少。本文主要讨论了聚合物结晶性、分子亲疏水性、分子链柔顺性、交联等结构因素对缓释性能的影响。深入研究聚合物结构对缓释性能的影响有助于缓控释材料的创新;能为聚合物包膜材料的设计、聚合物缓控释肥的研发及生产提供一定的理论依据。