Dual Amperometric Immunosensor for Improving Cancer Metastasis Detection by the Simultaneous Determination of Extracellular and Soluble Circulating Fraction of Emerging Metastatic Biomarkers

This paper reports the development of a dual immunosensor using magnetic microcarriers (MBs) and amperometric transduction at dual screen‐printed carbon electrodes (SPdCEs) for the simultaneous determination of two biomarkers: interleukin‐13 receptor α2 (IL‐13Rα2) and E‐cadherin (E‐CDH), with both extracellular and soluble fraction; oncogenic and tumor suppressor markers, respectively, of great relevance in metastatic processes. The implemented methodology involved the formation of sandwich‐type immunocomplexes using specific capture antibodies immobilized onto carboxylic acid magnetic microbeads (HOOC‐MBs), and biotinylated detector antibodies labeled with streptavidin?horseradish peroxidase conjugates (Strep‐HRP). The amperometric detection was performed by addition of hydrogen peroxide in the presence of hydroquinone (HQ) as the redox mediator. The dual immunosensing platform provided linear calibration ranges suitable for the determination of both biomarkers in liquid and solid clinical specimens as well as excellent selectivity against other cancer biomarkers. This simple handling dual bioplatform was applied to the determination of the soluble and extracellular fraction of the target biomarkers in serum and paraffined‐embedded tissues from colorectal cancer (CRC) patients diagnosed at different tumor grade. The obtained results reveal great potential of this configuration to improve the reliability in diagnosing metastatic CRC.     

A Polypyridyl‐Based Layered Complex as Dual‐Functional Co‐catalyst for Photo‐Driven Organic Dyes Degradation and Water Splitting

With the ever‐increasing concerns on environmental pollution and energy crisis, it is of great urgency to develop high‐performance photocatalyst to eliminate organic pollutants from wastewater and produce hydrogen via water splitting. Herein, a polypyridyl‐based mixed covalent Cu^I/II complex with triangular {Cu₃} and rhombic {Cu₂Cl₄} subunits alternately extended by mixed SCN^– and Cl^– heterobridges [Cu₄(DNP)(SCN)Cl₄]_n ( 1 ) [DNP = 2,6‐bis(1,8‐naphthyridine‐2‐yl)pyridine] was solvothermally synthesized and employed as a dual‐functional co‐photocatalyst. Resulting from a narrowed band‐gap of 1.07 eV with suitable redox potential and unsaturated Cu^I/II sites, the complex together with H₂O₂ can effectively degrade Rhodamine B and methyl orange up to 87.4 and 88.2 %, respectively. Meanwhile, the complex mixed with H₂PtCl₆ can also accelerate the photocatalytic water splitting in the absence of a photosensitizer with the hydrogen production rate of 27.5 μmol · g^–1 · h^–1. These interesting findings may provide informative hints for the design of the multiple responsive photocatalysts.     

Hierarchical Functionalized Polymeric‐Ceramic Coatings on Mg‐Ca Alloys for Biodegradable Implant Applications

Magnesium‐based implants present several advantages for clinical applications, in particular due to their biocompatibility and degradability. However, degradation products can affect negatively the cell activity. In this work, a combined coating strategy to control the implant degradation and cell regulation processes is evaluated, including plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) that produces a 13 µm‐thick Ca, P, and Si containing ceramic coating with surface porosity, and breath figures (BF) approach that produces a porous polymeric poly(ε‐caprolactone) surface. The degradation of PCL‐PEO‐coated Mg hierarchical scaffold can be tailored to promote cell adhesion and proliferation into the porous structure. As a result, cell culture can colonize the inner PEO‐ceramic coating structure where higher amount of bioelements are present. The Mg/PEO/PCL/BF scaffolds exhibit equally good or better premyoblast cell adhesion and proliferation compared with Ti CP control. The biological behavior of this new hierarchical functionalized scaffold can improve the implantation success in bone and cardiovascular clinical applications.     

Efficient Synthesis of New 2H‐Chromene Retinoids Hybrid Derivatives by Suzuki Cross‐coupling Reactions

In an attempt to improve anticancer activity, a series of retinoids–chromene hybrids was described. The novel heterocyclic chromene–retinoids hybrid including oxygen as a heteroatom in a six‐membered cyclic ring (2H‐chromene or 2H‐1‐benzopyran) was designed and synthesized by introducing different groups such as an aromatic or styrylphenyl ring in 6‐position of 2H‐chromene. These novel compounds were synthesized by using the efficient cascades one‐pot process involving Wittig–Horner–Emmons reaction and Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling pallado‐catalyzed reactions with 60% to 90% overall yields. These new compounds were tested against glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer, medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma cell lines, and breast cancer MCF‐7 cell lines. Two of them exhibited an appreciable anti‐tumor activity in the low micromolar range, which opens new perspectives for therapeutic application on humans.     

Non‐3d Metal Modulation of a Cobalt Imidazolate Framework for Excellent Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution in Neutral Media

Cobalt imidazolate frameworks are classical electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) but suffer from the relatively low activity. Here, a non‐3d metal modulation strategy is presented for enhancing the OER activity of cobalt imidazolate frameworks. Two isomorphous frameworks [Co₄(MO₄)(eim)₆] (M=Mo or W, Heim=2‐ethylimidazole) having Co(eim)₃(MO₄) units and high water stabilities were designed and synthesized. In different neutral media, the Mo‐modulated framework coated on a glassy carbon electrode shows the best OER performances (1 mA cm^?2 at an overpotential of 210 mV in CO₂‐saturated 0.5 m KHCO₃ electrolyte and 2/10/22 mA cm^?2 at overpotential of 388/490/570 mV in phosphate buffer solution) among non‐precious metal catalysts and even outperforms RuO₂. Spectroscopic measurements and computational simulations revealed that the non‐3d metals modulate the electronic structure of Co for optimum reactant/product adsorption and tailor the energy of rate‐determining step to a more moderate value.     

Boron‐Containing Probes for Non‐optical High‐Resolution Imaging of Biological Samples

Boron has been employed in materials science as a marker for imaging specific structures by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) or secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). It has a strong potential in biological analyses as well; however, the specific coupling of a sufficient number of boron atoms to a biological structure has proven challenging. Herein, we synthesize tags containing closo‐1,2‐dicarbadodecaborane, coupled to soluble peptides, which were integrated in specific proteins by click chemistry in mammalian cells and were also coupled to nanobodies for use in immunocytochemistry experiments. The tags were fully functional in biological samples, as demonstrated by nanoSIMS imaging of cell cultures. The boron signal revealed the protein of interest, while other SIMS channels were used for imaging different positive ions, such as the cellular metal ions. This allows, for the first time, the simultaneous imaging of such ions with a protein of interest and will enable new biological applications in the SIMS field.     

Reversible Optical Writing and Data Storage in an Anthracene‐Loaded Metal–Organic Framework

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) enable the design of host–guest systems with specific properties. In this work, we show how the confinement of anthracene in a well‐chosen MOF host leads to reversible yellow‐to‐purple photoswitching of the fluorescence emission. This behavior has not been observed before for anthracene, either in pure form or adsorbed in other porous hosts. The photoresponse of the host–guest system is caused by the photodimerization of anthracene, which is greatly facilitated by the pore geometry, connectivity, and volume as well as the structural flexibility of the MOF host. The photoswitching behavior was used to fabricate photopatternable and erasable surfaces that, in combination with data encryption and decryption, hold promise in product authentication and secure communication applications.     

Reversible Sodium Metal Electrodes: Is Fluorine an Essential Interphasial Component?

Alkaline metals are an ideal negative electrode for rechargeable batteries. Forming a fluorine‐rich interphase by a fluorinated electrolyte is recognized as key to utilizing lithium metal electrodes, and the same strategy is being applied to sodium metal electrodes. However, their reversible plating/stripping reactions have yet to be achieved. Herein, we report a contrary concept of fluorine‐free electrolytes for sodium metal batteries. A sodium tetraphenylborate/monoglyme electrolyte enables reversible sodium plating/stripping at an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.85 % over 300 cycles. Importantly, the interphase is composed mainly of carbon, oxygen, and sodium elements with a negligible presence of fluorine, but it has both high stability and extremely low resistance. This work suggests a new direction for stabilizing sodium metal electrodes via fluorine‐free interphases.     

Modeling of Anionic Polymerization of Isoprene in an Industrial Reactor

One of the most important reasons for modeling polymerization processes is to provide a tool for estimating the risks of runaway reactions in polymer industry. This is especially important for batch processes, such as anionic polymerization of isoprene or butadiene. This work presents a theoretical and experimental research of the anionic polymerization of isoprene using cyclohexane as solvent and n‐butyllithium as initiator. In the first part, a phenomenological kinetic expression is obtained that describes the anionic polymerization of isoprene initiated by n‐butyllithium in cyclohexane. In the second, the mass and energy balance equations are solved to model the anionic polymerization of isoprene in a quasi‐adiabatic batch reactor. Adjustment of reactor parameters is made using the data obtained from a laboratory reactor. The proposed model predicts adequately the obtained temperature, pressure, and conversion profiles from this set of experiments. Finally, a mathematical model is developed to predict the behavior for the anionic polymerization of isoprene in an industrial reactor.