Immunological strip sensor for the rapid determination of niacin in dietary supplements and foods.

Herein, four haptens of niacin (Vitamin B3, VB3) were designed, and after a series of experiments, it was concluded that hapten D had the best immune effect. To avoid false positives in the detection of real samples, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against VB3 was prepared by a matrix effect-enhanced mAb screening method. The concentration of the inhibition rate reaching 50% (IC50) was 603.41 ng mL-1 and the limit of detection (LOD) using an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ic-ELISA) was 54.89 ng mL-1. A lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA) based on gold nanoparticles was established to detect the concentration of VB3 in compound vitamin B tablets and infant formulas, with a visual LOD of 5 µg mL-1. Using a handheld reader, the quantitative LOD was calculated to be 0.60 µg mL-1. The contents of the compound vitamin B tablets and infant formulas were also verified by liquid chromatography. Therefore, the LFIA developed in this study can be applied to the specific identification and rapid detection of niacin in nutritional dietary supplements, thus meeting the market's demand for efficient niacin detection methods.

Dual-Modal FexCuySe and Upconversion Nanoparticle Assemblies for Intracellular MicroRNA-21 Detection.

In situ quantification and imaging of low-level intracellular microRNAs (miRs) are important areas in biosensor research. Herein, DNA-driven FexCuySe@upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) core@satellite nanostructures were developed to probe microRNA-21 (miR-21). FexCuySe@UCNP probes displayed dual signals: upconversion luminescence (UCL) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the presence of miR-21, the luminescence signal was restored and the T2 value was significantly increased because of dissociation of UCNPs from the assemblies. There was a good linear relationship between the dual signals and the expression levels of miR-21 in the range of 0.035-31.824 amol/ngRNA. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0058 amol/ngRNA for the luminescence intensity and 0.0182 amol/ngRNA for the MRI signal. This method opens a new avenue for intracellular miR-21 detection with high sensitivity and specificity.

Light-Induced Chiral Iron Copper Selenide Nanoparticles Prevent ß-Amyloidopathy In†Vivo.

The accumulation and deposition of ß-amyloid (Aß) plaques in the brain is considered a potential pathogenic mechanism underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD). Chiral l/d-Fex Cuy Se nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated that interfer with the self-assembly of Aß42 monomers and trigger the Aß42 fibrils in dense structures to become looser monomers under 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) illumination. d-Fex Cuy Se NPs have a much higher affinity for Aß42 fibrils than l-Fex Cuy Se NPs and chiral Cu2-x Se NPs. The chiral Fex Cuy Se NPs also generate more reactive oxygen species (ROS) than chiral Cu2-x Se NPs under NIR-light irradiation. In living MN9D cells, d-NPs attenuate the adhesion of Aß42 to membranes and neuron loss after NIR treatment within 10 min without the photothermal effect. In-vivo experiments showed that d-Fex Cuy Se NPs provide an efficient protection against neuronal damage induced by the deposition of Aß42 and alleviate symptoms in a mouse model of AD, leading to the recovery of cognitive competence.

A self-assembled chiral-aptasensor for ATP activity detection.

Circular dichroism (CD) has allowed the construction of various chiral nanomaterials for different applications, including biosensing. However, the determination of a simple target-specific, economical, and biocompatible platform using CD with intracellular detection and in situ molecular probing is still required. Here, we show that a DNA zip-fastener structure self-assembled chiral-aptasensor based on gold nanoparticle heterodimers provided an outstanding capability to quantify adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) by addition. The conjugation of two ATP molecules to an adenosine aptamer allowed the formation of a stable ring structure, which formed an ATP-ring adhesive scaffold upon interaction with DNA complementary sequences linked with large gold nanoparticles, the latter were able to drop and result in a decrease in CD signal. We also showed that these low-cytotoxicity and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-steady nanoconjugates were also a one-step incubation technique for the quantification and monitoring of ATP in living cells modified by cell penetrating peptides (TAT) or Cy5. The results showed that the linear intracellular detection range was from 1.5 to 4.2 mM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2 mM. Our findings suggest that this chiroplasmonic sensor is a promising approach for investigating biogenic biomolecules inside cells and living organisms and for assessing their biological activity.

Hierarchical Plasmonic Nanorods and Upconversion Core-Satellite Nanoassemblies for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Combination Phototherapy.

DNA-driven hierarchical core-satellite nanostructures with plasmonic gold nanorod dimers and upconversion nanoparticles are fabricated. Once the core-satellite structure is activated, combined photothermal therapy and photodynamic therapy are carried out under the guidance of upconversion luminesce, T1 -weighted magnetic resonance, photoacoustics, and computed tomography imaging of tumors in vivo, which exhibit the multifunctional biological applications of the DNA-based self-assemblies.