Novel Magnetic Microprobe with Benzoboroxole-Modified Flexible Multisite Arm for High-Efficiency cis-Diol Biomolecule Detection.

With regard to regulating a variety of biological events, including molecular recognition, signal transduction, cell adhesion, and immune response, cis-diol biomolecules, such as saccharides and glycoproteins, play vital roles. However, saccharides and glycoproteins in living systems usually exist in very low abundance, along with abundant interfering components. High-efficiency detection of saccharides and glycoproteins is a challenging yet highly impactful area of research. Herein, we reported a novel magnetic microprobe with a benzoboroxole-modified flexible multisite arm (PEG 2000-grafted PAMAM dendrimers; the microprobe was denoted as BFMA-MNP) for high-efficiency saccharides detection. The extraction capacity was significantly improved by ∼2 orders of magnitude, because of the integration of the enhanced hydrophilicity and multivalency effects in benzoboroxoles and the enhanced accessibility of the binding sites within the PEG 2000-grafted PAMAM dendrimers. As a result, the proposed approach possessed several advantages, compared with previous boronic acid-based methods, including ultrahigh sensitivity (limit of detection was <1 ng/mL), wide linear range (ranged from 0.5 µM to 2000 µM), and applicable in physiological pH condition. Furthermore, we established a general BFMA-MNP/glycoproteins/AuNPs sandwich assay to realize the visual glycoprotein qualitative screening for the first time. The unique sandwich assay possessed the dual nature of the magnetic separation by BFMA-MNPs and specific coloration by citrate-coated AuNPs. This visual sandwich assay enabled fast differentiation of the existence of glycoproteins in complicated samples without any advanced instruments. We believe the proposed BFMA-MNP microprobe herein will advance the ideas to detect and identify trace saccharides and glycoproteins in important fields such as glycomics and glycoproteomics.

Improving Surgeons' Comfort With Prismatic Glasses During Cleft Palate Surgery: Preliminary Findings.

PURPOSE: We aimed to observe the effect of prismatic glasses on improving surgeons' comfort during cleft palate surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A within-subjects design was used. We included 3 oral-maxillofacial surgeons and 6 patients with complete cleft palate in the study. One group of cleft palate patients (3 complete cleft palates) was allocated to each of the 3 surgeons not wearing prismatic glasses, and another similar group of cleft palate patients was allocated to the same 3 surgeons wearing prismatic glasses. The push-back method was performed in all cleft palate patients by all surgeons. The degree of neck flexion exhibited by all surgeons was digitally video recorded. Screen-capture images of the video recordings were collected, and neck flexion in all video recordings was analyzed. All surgeons completed a questionnaire based on a visual analog scale to assess their discomfort symptoms of the neck, shoulders, and back. Operative time and bleeding volume were recorded to assess operational efficiency. RESULTS: Use of prismatic glasses significantly reduced surgeons' working time spent in pronounced neck flexion during cleft palate surgery (P < .05), and there was a statistically significant reduction in the visual analog scale discomfort scores for the neck, back, and shoulders with the use of prismatic glasses (P < .05). However, no significant difference was found in operational time (P = .337) and bleeding volume (P = .183) attributable to the presence or absence of prismatic glasses. CONCLUSIONS: An ergonomic approach to cleft palate surgery in which surgeons wore prismatic glasses improved neck, back, and shoulder comfort.

Bioinspired Polyelectrolyte-Assembled Graphene-Oxide-Coated C18 Composite Solid-Phase Microextraction Fibers for In Vivo Monitoring of Acidic Pharmaceuticals in Fish.

A novel solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was prepared by gluing poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) assembled graphene oxide (GO)-coated C18 composite particles (C18@GO@PDDA) onto a quartz fiber with polyaniline (PANI). The fiber surface coating was sequentially modified with bioinspired polynorepinephrine, which provided a smooth biointerface and makes the coating suitable for in vivo sampling. The novel custom-made coating was used to extract acidic pharmaceuticals, and high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was employed for analysis. The custom-made coating exhibited a much higher extraction efficiency than the previously used commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyacrylate (PA) coatings. The custom-made coating also possessed satisfactory stability (the relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranged from 1.60% to 10.3% for six sampling-desorption cycles), interfiber reproducibility (the RSDs ranged from 2.61% to 11.5%), and resistance to matrix effects. The custom-made fibers were used to monitor the presence of acid pharmaceuticals in dorsal-epaxial muscle of living fish, and satisfactory sensitivities (limits of detection ranged from 0.13 ng/g to 7.56 ng/g) were achieved. The accuracies were verified by the comparison with liquid extraction. Moreover, the novel fibers were successfully used to monitor the presence of acidic pharmaceuticals in living fish, which demonstrated that the custom-made fibers were feasible for possible long-term in vivo continuous pharmaceutical monitoring.

A new classification of mandible defects and condyle changed after mandible reconstruction with FFF.

Objectives: To explore a new classification of mandibular defects and changes in the preserved condyle after mandibular reconstruction with free fibular flap(FFF). Study design: We reviewed patients who underwent mandibular reconstruction with FFF from 2015 to 2021 and classified the mandibular defects into five categories: classⅠ(unilateral-mandibular excluding condyle), classⅡ(unilateral-mandibular including condyle), classⅢ(bilateral-mandibular excluding condyle), classⅣ(bilateral-mandibular including one condyle), and classⅤ(bilateral-mandibular including both condyles). Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) data were collected preoperatively(T0), at 7-10 postoperative days(T1), 6 postoperative months(T2), and 1 postoperative year(T3). We calculated the condylar surface area, volume, and displacement. Results: 62 cases were collected. The condylar surface areas and volumes in T2 and T3 values were lower than those of T0 and T1(P < 0.01) The condylar displacement was the lowest in ClassI and the largest in ClassⅣ(P < 0.01), while no significant differences in classesⅠ-Ⅲ(P < 0.05). Displacement during T1-T0 was greater than that during T2-T0 and T3-T0(P < 0.05). Conclusion: Mandibular reconstruction with FFF results in displacement and alteration of the condyle within a time interval, and this alteration stabilizes after 6 months. Mandibular defects that do not reach the midline, surgical alteration to preserve the condyle are not required. However, when the defects cross the midline, the condyle should be preserved as much as possible.

Polydopamine decorated ordered mesoporous carbon for efficient removal of bilirubin under albumin-rich conditions.

Excess bilirubin in the body will lead to serious health problems; however, its efficient removal remains a challenge in the clinical field because the available sorbent materials still suffer from serious performance issues, performance declining in a high-content albumin environment. Herein, we prepared a novel polydopamine (PDA) decorated ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) material for the efficient removal of bilirubin in albumin-rich conditions. OMC was used as the supporting material due to its high specific surface area and its good affinity to hydrophobic analytes. PDA was then decorated on the OMC material through a facile self-assembly process to form a surface-imprinted layer. The obtained PDA-coated OMC material (OMC@PDA) exhibited excellent adsorption performance towards bilirubin in albumin-free conditions, in which its theoretical maximum adsorption amount was calculated to be 513.54 mg g-1. The imprinted PDA layer, for which the association constant towards bilirubin reached 4.51 × 104 M-1, endowed OMC@PDA with a competitive affinity compared to albumin. Therefore the materials showed good adsorption capacity and efficiency even in an albumin-rich environment (the adsorption equilibrated at 122.7 mg g-1 in 30 min). In addition, the good biocompatibility of OMC@PDA was demonstrated by hemolysis assay and protein fouling evaluation, which indicated the feasibility of applying this material in clinical situations.

Solid-phase microextraction of antibiotics from fish muscle by using MIL-101(Cr)NH2-polyacrylonitrile fiber and their identification by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Antibiotics are a group of antibacterial drugs used in the treatment and prevention of bacterial diseases in humans, veterinary animals, and farmed fish. Inappropriate and excessive use of antibiotic therapy leads to antibiotic fragment in the water bodies thus affect the aquatic organisms. In this study, an amino group modified high surface area metal-organic framework (MOF) MIL-101(Cr)-NH2 was used to prepare solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber to detect four different classes (total 6 ABs) of antibiotics for the first time from living tilapia fish (Oreochromis mossambicus) by coupling SPME with high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The extraction efficiencies of the custom-made fiber were superior as compared with the commercial C18, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), PDMS/divinylbenzene (DVB) and polyacrylate fibers. The custom-made fiber also exhibited excellent reproducibility with the low intra-fiber relative standard deviations (RSDs 1.5%-8.3%) and inter-fiber RSDs (7.3%-14.5%), which made it ideal for in vivo extraction in fish muscle. The as-prepared MIL-101(Cr)-NH2 fiber was then used to determine antibiotics in the dorsal-epaxial muscle of living fish. Comparing to the traditional solid-liquid extraction (SLE) method, the SPME method showed reduced invasiveness and higher sensitivity than the SLE method. In general, this study explored a convenient, cost-effective and highly sensitive SPME method based on amino modified MOF for in vivo antibiotic detection in fish muscle.

A robust and homogeneous porous poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/graphene thin film for high-efficiency laser desorption/ionization analysis of estrogens in biological samples.

Herein, a robust and homogeneous porous poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/graphene (PEDOT/graphene) thin film surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization (SALDI) functional platform was prepared through a rapid and facile in-situ photopolymerization method. The graphene-embedded PEDOT skeleton well circumvented the aggregation-related problems in the traditional carbon-based SALDI method which combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF MS). As a result, the reproducibility and quantitative capacity of the SALDI platform were significantly improved. Furthermore, the highly efficient adsorption performance of the PEDOT/graphene thin film was demonstrated in terms of in vitro and in vivo solid-phase microextraction (SPME) extraction. It showed that porous morphology with abundant graphene doping favored the adsorption and enrichment of target analytes. Owing to the excellent adsorption capability of the PEDOT/graphene thin film and the inherent strong laser absorption ability of graphene, expected SALDI effect (3-13 times higher than the commercial nanomaterial-assisted LDI plate) and quantitative analysis (linear range 0.5-100 µg L-1) of the PEDOT/graphene functional surfaces were achieved. As for the real-world applications, we deployed the PEDOT/graphene thin film SALDI platform for the analysis of five estrogens in biological samples at microliter-volume level, without tedious sample preparation procedures. Satisfactory recoveries ranging from 60.6% to 99.0% were obtained. The present study suggested that the graphene-embedded PEDOT skeleton with porous morphology would be developed as promising coating for the adsorption of analytes of interest. Additionally, the combination of PEDOT with graphene not only expanded the application fields of PEDOT, but also offered an efficient strategy for preparing homogeneous functional surfaces to realize the quantitative analysis in SALDI method.

Sulfonated nanoparticles doped electrospun fibers with bioinspired polynorepinephrine sheath for in vivo solid-phase microextraction of pharmaceuticals in fish and vegetable.

In this study, the biocompatible copolymer Poly(lactic acid-co-caprolactone) (PLCL) doped with sulfonated γ-Al2O3 nanoparticles was used for electrospun on stainless wires. The electrospun fibers were further sheathed by the self-polymerization of norepinephrine, a catecholamine found both in neurotransmitters and mussel adhesive proteins, to improve the surface hydrophilicity and provide a smooth bio-interface. The modified electrospun fibers on stainless wires were developed as novel custom-made solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers. These fibers exhibited much higher extraction efficiency compared to the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fibers, especially to the sulfonamides. The custom-made SPME fibers also showed excellent stability with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra-fiber ranged from 1.98% to 9.86% and RSDs of inter-fiber ranged from 4.36% to 15.6%. Moreover, these fibers were also demonstrated to be anti-biofouling and suitable for in vivo sampling. The custom-made SPME fibers were successfully applied to determine the Pharmaceutical concentrations in living fishes and vegetables. The accuracies were verified by the comparison with liquid extraction and the sensitivities were demonstrated to be satisfying with the limits of detection (LODs) ranged from 0.16ng/g to 5.35ng/g in fish muscle and 0.02ng/g to 8.02ng/g in vegetable stem.

Boronate Affinity-Molecularly Imprinted Biocompatible Probe: An Alternative for Specific Glucose Monitoring.

A biocompatible probe for specific glucose recognition is based on photoinitiated boronate affinity-molecular imprinted polymers (BA-MIPs). The unique pre-self-assembly between glucose and boronic acids creates glucose-specific memory cavities in the BA-MIPs coating. As a result, the binding constant toward glucose was enhanced by three orders of magnitude. The BA-MIPs probe was applied to glucose determination in serum and urine and implanted into plant tissues for low-destructive and long-term in vivo continuous glucose monitoring.