Ultra-Fast Single-Nucleotide-Variation Detection Enabled by Argonaute-Mediated Transistor Platform.

"Test-and-go" single-nucleotide variation (SNV) detection within several minutes remains challenging, especially in low-abundance samples, since existing methods face a trade-off between sensitivity and testing speed. Sensitive detection usually relies on complex and time-consuming nucleic acid amplification or sequencing. Here, a graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) platform mediated by Argonaute protein that enables rapid, sensitive, and specific SNV detection is developed. The Argonaute protein provides a nanoscale binding channel to preorganize the DNA probe, accelerating target binding and rapidly recognizing SNVs with single-nucleotide resolution in unamplified tumor-associated microRNA, circulating tumor DNA, virus RNA, and reverse transcribed cDNA when a mismatch occurs in the seed region. An integrated microchip simultaneously detects multiple SNVs in agreement with sequencing results within 5 min, achieving the fastest SNV detection in a "test-and-go" manner without the requirement of nucleic acid extraction, reverse transcription, and amplification.

Measuring heavy metal ions in water using nature existed microalgae as medium based on terahertz technology.

Heavy metal pollution in water seriously affects human health. The disadvantages of traditional metal ion detection methods involve long and cumbersome chemical pretreatment in the early stage, and large volume of samples. In this study, microalgae were used as the medium, and terahertz spectroscopy technology was employed to collect the changes of material components in it, so as to deduce the types and concentrations of heavy metal pollution in water. Through the partial least square(PLS), we establish the prediction model of heavy metal concentration, and the results show that the best detection time for Pb2+ is 6 h and Ni2+ is 18 h. The principal component analysis(PCA) shows that ß-carotene is the most affected substance. Afterward we collect five real surface waters in East China and verify that the judgment accuracy of Pb2+ and Ni2+ are 100% and 93.2% respectively. The results indicate that the time is shorter than the traditional pretreatment time from more than 20-6 h, the sample volume is reduced from 50 mL to 10 mL, the detection accuracy is improved from 10 ng/mL to 1 ng/mL. In a word, we provide a new fast and real-time method for biological monitoring of heavy metal pollution in water.

Resveratrol attenuates inflammation and apoptosis through alleviating endoplasmic reticulum stress via Akt/mTOR pathway in fungus-induced allergic airways inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Resveratrol has shown pleiotropic effects against inflammation and oxidative response. The present study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of resveratrol on fungus-induced allergic airway inflammation. METHODS: Female BALB/c mice were injected intraperitoneally with Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) extract emulsified with aluminum on day 0 and 7 and intranasally challenged with Af extracts on day 14 and 15. Resveratrol or dexamethasone or a vehicle was injected intraperitoneally 1 h before each challenge. Mice were sacrificed for serum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and lungs 24 h after the last challenge. The control group was administered with saline. BEAS-2B was used for the experiments in vitro that Af-exposed airway epithelial cells. RESULTS: Resveratrol and dexamethasone attenuated the airway inflammation and eosinophilia, and reduced not only the production of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 in the BALF and lung tissues but also the mRNA levels of lung IL-6, TNF-α, and TGF-ß induced by Af challenge (P < 0.05). Furthermore, Af-induced lung endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-related proteins PERK, CHOP, and GRP78 and the apoptosis markers including cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-7 were both suppressed significantly by resveratrol (P < 0.05). In vitro, activation of ER stress and the Akt/mTOR pathway in Af-exposed BEAS-2B cells were effectively ameliorated by resveratrol. Inhibition of the Akt/mTOR pathway using LY294002 suppressed the ER stress while ER stress inhibitor 4-PBA decreased the apoptosis in Af-exposed BEAS-2B cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings collectively revealed that resveratrol alleviated the Af-exposed allergic inflammation and apoptosis through inhibiting ER stress via Akt/mTOR pathway, exerting therapeutic effects on the fungus-induced allergic lung disorder.