A quantitative study of nanoplastics within cells using magnetic resonance imaging.

Concerns regarding the environmental hazards and health risks of nanoplastics (NPs) are increasing. However, quantifying of NPs in vivo remains challenging. In this study, we propose a strategy for using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify NPs internalized by mouse macrophages. Model NPs (Fe3O4@PS) with more homogeneous sizes and morphologies were obtained by encapsulating Fe3O4 in polystyrene. A standard curve was generated by linearly fitting the intensity and concentration charts to the Fe3O4@PS MRI data. The mass of Fe3O4@PS captured by the mouse macrophages was estimated using a standard curve. An explanation of how the standard curves were created and used is provided in the text. The accuracy of the MRI results was demonstrated using, inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Quantitative results from MRI and ICP revealed that the mouse macrophage uptake increased as NPs concentrations decreased. According to the ICP results, when the NPs exposure concentration was 10 µg/mL, the uptake rate by mouse macrophages was 63.0 %. The quantitative MRI results were slightly lower than those for ICP, with an uptake rate of 57.7 % in mouse macrophages at the same concentration. Therefore, MRI provides a new perspective for quantitative NPs analysis.

Treatment of polyvinyl alcohol containing wastewater in two stage spiral symmetrical stream anaerobic bioreactors coupled a sequencing batch reactor.

This work aimed to study the treatment of polyvinyl alcohol containing wastewater (PVA-containing wastewater) discharged from textile industry. The batch experiment verified the feasibility of anaerobic treatment and determined that the optimal substrate COD was around 3000 mg/L. The single spiral symmetrical stream anaerobic bioreactor (SSSAB) was used for treating PVA-containing wastewater, which shows the stability of SSSAB and the improvement of biodegradability of wastewater. Finally, two stage SSSABs coupled SBR was proposed. By this scheme, under the influent COD of 3014 mg/L and PVA of 413 mg/L, the COD and PVA removal reached 89.4% and 90.7%, respectively, which were higher than the values obtained by other schemes. Contribution rates of reactors show that each reactor plays an essential role, and SEM images show the unique of microbial flora in each SSSAB. The SSSAB-SSSAB-SBR process can provide an alternative to the chemical methods for treating PVA-containing wastewater.

BEAMing LAMP: single-molecule capture and on-bead isothermal amplification for digital detection of hepatitis C virus in plasma.

A novel dNAD platform (BEAMing LAMP) by combining emulsion micro-reactors, single-molecule magnetic capture and on-bead loop-mediated isothermal amplification has been developed for DNA detection, which enables absolute and high-precision quantification of a target with a detection limit of 300 copies.

Gold nanoparticle supported phospholipid membranes as a biomimetic biosensor platform for phosphoinositide signaling detection.

Enzyme mediated phosphoinositide signaling plays important regulatory roles in diverse cellular processes and has close implication in human diseases. However, detection of phosphoinositide enzymes remains a challenge because of the difficulty in discriminating the phosphorylation patterns of phosphoinositide. Here we develop a novel enzyme-activated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) assembly strategy as a homogeneous colorimetric biosensor for activity detection of phosphoinositide kinases and phosphatases. This strategy utilizes a biomimetic mechanism of phosphoinositide signaling, in which AuNP supported phospholipid membranes are constructed to mimic the cellular membrane substrate, and AuNPs modified with the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of cytosolic proteins are designed for specific, multivalent recognition of phosphorylated phosphoinositides. This biomimetic strategy enables efficient enzymatic reactions of the substrate and highly selective detection of target enzyme. The biosensor is demonstrated for the detection of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and phosphatase with tensin homology (PTEN). The results revealed that it allows sensitive, rapid visual detection of the enzymes with pM detection limits and four-decade wide dynamic ranges, and is capable of detecting enzyme activities in complex cell lysate samples. This biosensor might provide a general biosensor platform for high-throughput detection of phosphoinositide enzymes with high sensitivity and selectivity in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics.