Triple Cascade Quantum-Strip for Heart Failure Point-of-Care Testing.

Heart failure (HF) is a life-threatening syndrome. Timely and accurate bedside monitoring of the occurrence and progression of HF via measurements of multiple HF-related biomarkers remains a challenge. Here, we report a triple cascade quantum-strip (TCQS) sensing strategy for the rapid and selective multiplex-tracing of three clinically validated HF biomarkers (BNP/NT-proBNP/ST2) in serum. High selectivity to the three biomarkers is achieved by controlling the individual recognition ability of three target-specific quantum immunoprobes and tuning their simultaneous use to BNP/NT-proBNP/ST2 recognition without mutual interference, which allows the three biomarkers to be directly enriched from serum samples. Benefiting from the fast release-binding kinetics of target-bound immunoprobes on TCQS, recognizable fluorescent signals can be rapidly read out through combining with a self-designed smartphone-based portable reader. This rapid and simple profiling strategy results in good specificity and sensitivity with LODs of 0.097, 0.072, and 0.948 ng/mL for BNP, NT-proBNP, and ST2, respectively, which match the need of clinical applications. Real serum samples are tested with an accuracy of 92.86% for HF diagnosis, validating the capability of the smartphone-read TCQS for practical applications. In particular, the simultaneous detection of the TCQS sensing strategy for BNP/NT-proBNP/ST2 will facilitate the accurate monitoring of HF occurrence, risk stratification, progression, and prognosis as a powerful POCT tool.

Simultaneous Detection of Citric Acid and Oxalic Acid Based on Dual Spectrum and Biomimetic Peroxidase for Urolithiasis Screening with a Fully Automatic Urine Analyzer.

Urolithiasis stands as a prevalent ailment within the urinary system, with hyperoxaluria and hypocitraturia being the most frequent manifestations characterized by excessive oxalic acid (OA) and deficient citric acid (CA) levels in urine. Detecting these compounds in urine quantitatively holds paramount importance for early urolithiasis screening. Existing methodologies fall short in achieving simultaneous and on-site identification of OA and CA, posing challenges for accurate urolithiasis screening. Addressing this concern, the study successfully accomplishes the concurrent identification of OA and CA in urine through a combination of dual-spectral analysis and biomimetic peroxidase utilization. Bovine serum albumin and dithiothreitol-modified copper nanoclusters (BSA-DTT-CuNCs) are employed as biomimetic peroxidases, effectively mitigating interference and enabling the simultaneous determination of OA and CA. The quantification range spans from 0 to 12 mm for OA and 0.5 to 2.5 mm for CA, with detection limits of 0.18 and 0.11 mm, respectively. To facilitate swift and on-location urine analysis, a fully automated urine analyzer (FAUA) is introduced that streamlines the process of biomarker pretreatment and identification within urine samples. Validation with real urine samples from urolithiasis patients demonstrates the method's diagnostic precision, highlighting the dual-spectral technique and analyzer's promising role in urolithiasis screening.

Multifunctional AuNPs@HRP@FeMOF immune scaffold with a fully automated saliva analyzer for oral cancer screening.

Delayed diagnosis of cancer-causing death is a worldwide concern. General diagnosis methods are invasive, time-consuming, and operation complicated, which are not suitable for preliminary screening. To address these challenges, the sensing platform based on immune scaffold and fully automated saliva analyzer (FASA) was proposed for oral cancer screening for the first time by non-invasive detection of Cyfra21-1 in saliva. Through one-step synthesis method with unique covalent and electrostatic adsorption strategy, AuNPs@HRP@FeMOF immune scaffold features multiple functions including antibody carrier, catalytic activity, and signal amplification. Highly integrated FASA with the immune scaffold provides automatic testing to avoid false-positive results and reduce pretreatment time without any user intervention. Compared with the commercial analyzer, FASA has comparable performance for Cyfra21-1 detection with a detection range of 3.1-50.0 ng/mL and R2 of 0.971, and superior features in full automation, high integration, time saving and low cost. Oral cancer patients could be distinguished accurately by the platform with an excellent correlation (R2 of 0.904) and average RSD (5.578%) without sample dilution. The proposed platform provides an effective and promising tool for cancer screening in point-of-care applications, which can be further extended for biomarker detection in universal body fluids, disease screening, prognosis review and homecare monitoring.