Detection of SARS-CoV-2 S protein based on FRET between carbon quantum dots and gold nanoparticles.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus brings nasty crisis for public health in the world. Until now, the virus has caused multiple infections in many people. Detecting antigen to SARS-CoV-2 is a powerful method for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and is helpful for controlling and stopping the pandemic. Herein, a rapid and quantitative detection method of SARS-CoV-2 spike(S) protein was built based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) phenomenon without complicated steps. In the process of detecting, the carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) act as donor and acceptor. By modifying the SARS-CoV-2 antibodies on the surface of CQDs and AuNPs, we achieved S protein specific detection using the distance-based FRET phenomenon. Through the electric charge regulation, the limit of detection (LOD) is 0.05 ng/mL, the linear range is 0.1-100 ng/mL, and the detection process only takes 12 min. The proposed method exhibits several advantages such as be available for variants (B.1.1.529 and B.1.617.2) and be suitable for human serum, which is of significance for detecting viral in time and prevention the viral transmission.

Plasma-assisted in-situ preparation of graphene-Ag nanofiltration membranes for efficient removal of heavy metal ions.

Graphene-based membranes have been considered as promising separation membranes for water treatments due to their unique two-dimensional confined channels. However, subject to the preparation technology, the effective construction of graphene-based filtration membranes with suitable separation ability on heavy metal ions still face considerable challenges. Herein, we have successfully constructed a kind of graphene-based (reduced graphene oxide, rGO) nanofiltration membranes by adopting a plasma-assisted in-situ photocatalytic reduction method. Graphene oxide-Ag (GO-Ag) composite sheets are prepared firstly and then assembled into membranes by vacuum filtration. With the use of Ag nanoparticles as plasmonic photocatalyst, GO-Ag films can be in-situ reduced, leading to the formation of rGO-based composite membranes. Thanks to the mild in-situ reduction process, the filtration ability on heavy metal ions (Cr(VI), Cr3+, Cu2+ and Pb2+) caused by lamellar structure is well retained in the as-formed rGO-Ag membranes. Especially, when treating the typical toxic Cr(VI) solution, the retention capacity, water flux and stability of rGO-Ag membranes are all improved compared with that of the original GO-Ag ones. In addition, the effectively rejection of Cr(VI) from mixed solutions containing both Cr(VI) and Cr(III) also suggests the good applicability of such rGO-Ag membranes in a complex wastewater system.

Decontamination of 2-Chloroethyl ethyl sulfide on the surface by atmospheric pressure plasma jet.

Atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) were used to decontaminate the surface's 2-Chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (2-CEES), a kind of sulfur mustard (HD) simulant. The power of the APPJ device didn't exceed 7.77 W. Helium APPJ was easier to generate plasma jet than argon APPJ. The treated nude mouse skin surface's temperature slowly reached 30.4 °C and no obvious lesions in the dermis and skin appendages after 15 min treatment. Compared with argon APPJ, the helium APPJ produced more ·OH and the maximum concentration of ·OH was 3.748 × 10-9 mol/L. Attributed to the low density and more ·OH content, the helium APPJ had a better decontamination effect. With a maximum voltage of 7 kV and a helium flow rate of 4 L/min, 2-CEES (4.53 mg/cm2) can be completely decontaminated in 2.5 min, and no gaseous 2-CEES was detected. The detection of the 2-Hydroxyethyl ethyl sulfide proved the role of ·OH in the reaction system. During the reaction, 2-Chloroethyl ethyl sulfoxide and 2-Chloroethyl ethyl sulfone were also detected. The plasma jet could reduce the toxicity by destroying the parent molecule (2-CEES) in a short time, but it took more time to eliminate the intermediate products. No relevant intermediate products were detected in the gaseous, ensured the safety of personnel operating in open spaces.

Degradation of aniline in water with gaseous streamer corona plasma.

This paper demonstrated the effects and influencing factors in degrading aniline by gaseous streamer corona plasma along water surface under different discharging gas atmospheres. For aniline with an initial concentration of 100 mg l-1, the degradation was fastest when the reactor was not ventilated, and the degradation rate is 98.5% under 7.5 min treatment. While the degradation was slowest when Ar was ventilated, the degradation rate is 98.6% after treatment for 60 min. Some active particles were detected using a multi-channel fibre-optic spectrometer during the discharge, such as Ar, OH, N2, N 2 + and N. In particular, NO was detected during air discharge. The NO and N 2 + could produce NO 3 - ; then generated nitric acid would affect the pH value of the solution. The intermediate product by N2 discharge is nitrophenol, and nitrophenol would be converted to p-benzoquinone. The O2 discharge could produce an intermediate product of aminophenol. The intermediate products in Ar discharge were in small amounts and the final mineralization effect was the best.

Simple, rapid, and sensitive on-site detection of Hg2+ in water samples through combining portable evanescent wave optofluidic biosensor and fluorescence resonance energy transfer principle.

Rapid and sensitive detection of Hg2+ in the environment and drinking water is vital because of its non-degradability, bioaccumulation, and high toxicity. Herein, we report a portable evanescent wave optofluidic biosensor (EWOB) for simple sensitive detection of Hg2+ using fluorescence labeled poly-A DNA strand (CY-A14) and quencher labeled poly-T DNA strand (BQ-T14) as signal reporter and biorecognition element, respectively. Both CY-A14 and Hg2+ can competitively bind with BQ-T14 based on DNA hybridization and the specifical binding of Hg2+ and T bases of DNA to form T-Hg2+-T mismatch structure, respectively. Higher concentration of Hg2+ lead to less CY-A14 bound to BQ-T14 and thus a higher fluorescence intensity. The influence of several key environmental factors on Hg2+ biosensor, such as pH, temperature, and ionic strength, was investigated in details because they were essential for practical applications of Hg2+ biosensor. Under optimal conditions, a detection cycle for a single sample, including the measurement and regeneration, was less than 10 min with a Hg2+ detection limit of 8.5 nM. The high selectivity of the biosensor was showed by evaluating its response to various potentially interfering metal ions. Our results clearly demonstrated that the portable EWOB could serve as a powerful tool for rapid and sensitive on-site detection of Hg2+ in real water samples. The EWOB is also potentially applicable to detect other heavy metal ions or small molecule targets for which DNA/aptamers could be applied as specific biosensing probes.

A turn-on fluorescent probe based on N-(rhodamine-B)-thiolactam-2-n-butane with ionic liquids for selective and sensitive detection of mustard gas stimulant.

Sulfur mustard (SM) is recognized as one of the most lethal warfare agents. It has the potential to seriously affect public health and safety. To employ appropriate medical countermeasures and treat victims as quickly as possible, the development of a rapid and simple SM detection technique is crucial. The aim of the present study was to explore novel detection systems exhibiting excellent selectivity and high sensitivity. An SM probe, namely N-(rhodamine-B)-thiolactam-2-n-butane (SRB-NB), which was based on a thiolactam structure, was effectively designed and synthesized. The rhodamine and thiourea moieties played the roles of the chromogenic and reacting groups, respectively. Subsequently, using ionic liquids (ILs) as the solvents, a turn-on fluorescence detection system was constructed. Notably, it was found that imidazole-based ILs displayed good solubility for an SM simulant, specifically 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (2-CEES). Moreover, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyandiamide ([BMIm]DCA) IL held the maximum amount of 2-CEES (132.5 g/100 g). The SRB-NB probe exhibited better ultraviolet (UV) absorption and fluorescence properties in ILs than in other organic solvents. SRB-NB/IL was able to detect 2-CEES in liquid form with remarkable selectivity and sensitivity. The limit of detection (LOD) was established at 3.0 × 10-6 M. Importantly, SRB-NB/ILs also showed good optical response to gaseous 2-CEES and SM.

Graphene Oxide Incorporated Forward Osmosis Membranes With Enhanced Desalination Performance and Chlorine Resistance.

In this work, grapheme oxide (GO) nano-sheets were synthesized and dispersed in the aqueous phase for the interfacial polymerization (IP) process to develop a new type of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes for forward osmosis (FO) applications. The effects of the GO concentrations on the membrane surfaces and cross-sectional morphologies and FO desalination performances of the as-prepared TFC membranes were investigated systematically. Compared with the control membrane, the optimal GO-incorporated TFC membrane displayed higher water flux, less specific reverse solute flux (SRSF) and lower structure parameter. Moreover, the optimized membrane showed 75.0 times higher chlorine resistance than the control membrane. In general, these new type of membranes could be an effective strategy to fabricate high-performance FO membranes with good desalination performance and chlorine resistance.

Rapid activation of basic hydrogen peroxide by borate and efficient destruction of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and chemical warfare agents (CWAs).

The activation process of the B(OH)3-activated H2O2 solution and its performance toward toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and chemical warfare agents (CWAs) were investigated to find an efficient way to destroy TICs and CWAs. 11B NMR analysis proved that B(OH)3 reacted rapidly with basic H2O2 to produce peroxoborates ([B(OH)(4-x)(OOH)x]-), and the proportional contents were closely related to the pH and temperature. 1O2 and ·O2- were generated, and their production increased exponentially with pH. TICs thioanisole and paraoxon were used as simulants of CWAs to investigate the decontamination performance and nucleophilic/oxidizing reactivity of the B(OH)3-activated H2O2. Batch experiments proved that peroxoborates acted as the oxidants for the primary oxidation of the sulfide at a pH range of 8-12 and that ·O2- was responsible for the further oxidation of sulfoxide. Paraoxon degraded through OOH--mediated SN2 displacement with high stereo-selectivity, and the degradation rate increased exponentially with pH. Mustard gas, soman, and VX degraded effectively into nontoxic products in the B(OH)3-activated H2O2 solution. A pH of 9-11 was recommended as the suitable acidity for developing the B(OH)3-activated H2O2 solution to be a candidate for nucleophilic/oxidizing decontaminant, with advantages in rapid activation and low loss rate of reactive oxygen species.

Reusable split-aptamer-based biosensor for rapid detection of cocaine in serum by using an all-fiber evanescent wave optical biosensing platform.

A rapid, facile, and sensitive assay of cocaine in biological fluids is important to prevent illegal abuse of drugs. A two-step structure-switching aptasensor has been developed for cocaine detection based on evanescent wave optical biosensing platform. In the proposed biosensing platform, two tailored aptamer probes were used to construct the molecular structure switching. In the existence of cocaine, two fragments of cocaine aptamer formed a three-way junction quickly, and the fluorophore group of one fragment was effectively quenched by the quencher group of the other one. The tail of the three-way junction hybridized with the cDNA sequences immobilized on the optical fiber biosensor. Fluorescence was excited by evanescent wave, and the fluorescence signal was proportional to cocaine concentration. Cocaine was detected in 450 s (300 s for incubation and 150 s for detection and regeneration) with a limit of detection (LOD) of 165.2 nM. The proposed aptasensor was evaluated in human serum samples, and it exhibited good recovery, precision, and accuracy without complicated sample pretreatments.

Practical, highly sensitive, and regenerable evanescent-wave biosensor for detection of Hg(2+) and Pb(2+) in water.

A "turn-on" evanescent-wave fiber biosensor based on functional nucleic acids was developed for on-site detection of Hg(2+) and Pb(2+) in environmental water samples. A two-step strategy was conducted to take advantage of the rapid binding of T-T mismatches with Hg(2+) and the cleavage of a substrate by 8-17 DNAzyme with Pb(2+) in solution, as well as sensitive DNA detection on a liquid-solid interface based on evanescent wave. The biosensor demonstrated high sensitivity (with a detection limit of 22 pM for Hg(2+) and 20 nM for Pb(2+)) and selectivity without any signal amplification, rapid detection (within 13 min per test), low cost (10-20 Chinese yuan per sample), and multiple-cycle regeneration (at least 18 times). The method was also successfully applied on Hg(2+) and Pb(2+) detection in real environmental water samples.

[In vivo identification of the interaction between var intron and an ApiAP2 transcription factor in Plasmodium falciparum].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential interaction between the ApiAP2 protein family member, PF3D7_1107800, and var intron of Plasmodium falciparum in vivo. METHODS: Genomic DNA was extracted from Plasmodium falciparum (3D7 strain), 5' end gene fragment of PF3D7_1107800 was amplified by PCR, and cloned into pGEX-4T-1 vector. The constructed pGEX-4T-1-PF3D7_1107800N was transformed into E. Coli BL21 (DE3) and followed by expression of the protein induced by IPTG. The recombinant protein was purified through glutathione sepharose. Twenty female BALB/c mice were divided into 2 group. Ten mice in experiment group were immunized with a mixture of the purified protein and Freund's adjuvant by subcutaneous injection. Other 10 mice received PBS injection as control. Sera from mice of 2 group were purified with protein G. The effect of the antibody was testified with Western blotting. DNA products of ChIP assay was analyzed for enrichment of anti-PF3D7_1107800 group in ups C var intron by qPCR. RESULTS: PCR result of the PF3D7_1107800 gene 5' end segment showed that there was a specific band (about 345 bp), which was consistent with the theoretical value. The constructed vector pGEX-4T-1-PF3D7_1107800N was confirmed by gene sequencing. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis demonstrated that the recombinant protein was about Mr 37,000. The anti-PF3D7_1107800 serum was obtained after the immunization of mice with the purified protein, and reacted with the recombinant protein, the specific band was about Mr 200,000. qPCR result showed that the fold enrichment of anti-PF3D7_1107800 group in var intron was two times higher than that of the reference gene region. CONCLUSION: The Plasmodium falciparum ApiAP2 family member PF3D7_1107800 binds to ups C var intron region in vivo.

Distinctive origin and spread route of pyrimethamine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in southern China.

Southeast Asia (the Thailand-Cambodia border) has been considered the primal epicenter for most antimalarial drug resistance; however, numerous molecular epidemiological studies have successively reported multiple independent origins of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance-associated Plasmodium falciparum dhfr (pfdhfr) and pfdhps alleles in other areas. To better understand the origin and evolutionary pathway of the SP resistance in Southeast Asia, a total of 374 P. falciparum field isolates from the Yunnan-Burma border and Hainan Island in southern China have been collected for comprehensive investigations on the mutation patterns of the pfdhfr/pfdhps genes as well as their microsatellite haplotypes. By comparative analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping and flanking microsatellite haplotypes, we reveal a unique origin of pyrimethamine-resistant mutations in Pfdhfr gene in Hainan Island and an oriented spread route of the pyrimethamine resistance from the Thailand-Cambodia border into the Hainan area, which reflects the geographical traits and SP administration histories in the two geographically independent areas. Moreover, genetic linkages between the high-level SP resistance-conferring pfdhfr/pfdhps alleles have been established in the isolates from the Yunnan-Burma border, raising the concern of a genetic basis in adopting combination chemotherapies against falciparum malaria.

Photocatalytic decomposition of acephate in irradiated TiO2 suspensions.

In the present study, the photocatalytic degradation of acephate (O,S-dimethyl acetyl phosphoramidothioate ((CH(3)O)(CH(3)S)P(O)NHCOCH(3))) in aqueous TiO2 suspensions is extensively investigated, pertaining to the concentration of photocatalyst and substrate on degradation rate of acephate. It is found that the acephate can be degradated and mineralized. The high-degradation rate is obtained with 4 g/L concentration of TiO2. Moreover, Langmuir-Hinshelowood rate expression is employed for the degradation of acephate with adsorption constant and rate constant, i.e., 2.0 L/mmol and 0.6 mmol/(min L), respectively. The main target is to identify the products by a number of analytical techniques, such as HPLC, IC, ESR and GC-MS. Under acidic condition, the primary products are phosphorothioic acid, O,O',S-trimethyl ester (CH(3)O(CH(3)S)P(O)OCH(3)) and phosphoramidothioic acid, O,S-dimethyl ester (CH(3)O(CH(3)S)P(O)NH(2)), etc. It indicates that the decomposition of acephate begin from the destruction of C-N and P-N bonds. Subsequently, the P-S, P-O, P-C bonds may be oxidized gradually or simultaneously, and the final products such as CO(2), H(3)PO(4), were formed. About 100% sulfur atoms are transformed into SO(4)(2-) in 180 min, however; only 3% nitrogen atoms and 2% phosphorus atoms were transformed into NO(3)(-) and PO(4)(3-).

[Photocatalytic removing of a mustard gas analogue 2-CEES vapor over SO4(2-)/TiO2].

Disinfection with photocatalysis, compared to with the conventional cleanout, is both high efficient and non contaminative, but the simple TiO2 photocatalyst is showing to be of low activity and low active stability so to be hardly practical application. In the paper, SO4(2-)/TiO2 were papered by surface modification of TiO2 with dilute H2SO4, and the photocatalytic degradation of 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (2-CEES) on the samples was examined in a fixed-bed microreactor. The examination show that the acidic modification enhanced both the activity and the active stability of TiO2, and the sample ST200 prepared by calcination at 200 degrees C was better than ST400 by calcination at 400 degrees C. The effect of water vapor content and reaction temperature on the photocatalytic degradation of 2-CEES was also tested, showing that the sample ST200 had high activity and stability at 90 degrees C, and kept a constant activity when adding 30.5 mL/L water vapor into the reactive system in which 2-CEES initial concentration was low to < 61 microL x L(-1). In addition, it was found that supporting SO4(2-)/TiO2 on gamma-Al2O3, SiO2 and active carbon could improve on the activity and stability of SO4(2-)/TiO2, and on supports SiO2 is the best one.