Flexible and Superwettable Bands as a Platform toward Sweat Sampling and Sensing.

Wearable biosensors as a user-friendly measurement platform have become a rapidly growing field of interests due to their possibility in integrating traditional medical diagnostics and healthcare management into miniature lab-on-body analytic devices. This paper demonstrates a flexible and skin-mounted band that combines superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic microarrays with nanodendritic colorimetric biosensors toward in situ sweat sampling and analysis. Particularly, on the superwettable bands, the superhydrophobic background could confine microdroplets into superhydrophilic microwells. On-body investigations further reveal that the secreted sweat is repelled by the superhydrophobic silica coating and precisely collected and sampled onto the superhydrophilic micropatterns with negligible lateral spreading, which provides an independent "vessel" toward cellphone-based sweat biodetection (pH, chloride, glucose and calcium). Such wearable, superwettable band-based biosensors with improved interface controllability could significantly enhance epidemical sweat sampling in well-defined sites, holding a great promise for facile and noninvasive biofluids analysis.

Case report: Features of hand, foot and mouth disease in neonates.

RATIONALE: Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is caused by enterovirus. The virus may exist in secretions. PATIENT CONCERNS: Five neonates had symptoms of fever and maculopapular rashes involving face, trunk, breech, arms, and legs, especially scattering on palms and feet. Blood, oropharyngeal fluid, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were collected and detected for further diagnoses with the consent of the infants' parents. Some of them suffered aseptic meningitis. DIAGNOSES: They were diagnosed as HFMD with CSF enterovirus positive. INTERVENTIONS: All of them continued breastfeed. Water bag was used during the pyrogenic stage. Antibiotics were administrated at first and withdrawn as soon as possible. OUTCOMES: None of them developed into brainstem encephalitis or pulmonary edema and they all recovered well. LESSONS: HFMD is more common in neonates than it has been thought. Enterovirus may exist in neonatal CSF and cause CSF cell to increase similar to purulent meningitis. Medical history, physical examination, and CSF enterovirus detection are important in making correct diagnosis. Unlike bacterial infection, HFMD is a self-limited disease. Once HFMD is determined and bacterial infection is ruled out, antibiotics should be avoided.

Enrichment and Viability Inhibition of Circulating Tumor Cells on a Dual Acid-Responsive Composite Nanofiber Film.

The formation and metastatic colonization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are responsible for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. Over the last decade, drug-delivery systems (DDSs) have rapidly developed with the emergence of nanotechnology; however, most reported tumor-targeting DDSs are able to deliver drugs only to solid tumor cells and not CTCs. Herein, a novel DDS comprising a composite nanofiber film was constructed to inhibit the viability of CTCs. In this system, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were functionalized with doxorubicin (DOX) through an acid-responsive cleavable linker to obtain Au-DOX NPs. Then, the Au-DOX NPs were mixed in a solution of an acid-responsive polymer {i.e., poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate]} to synthesize the nanofiber film through electrospinning technology. After that, the nanofiber film was modified with a specific antibody (i.e., anti-EpCAM) to enrich the concentration of CTCs on the film. Finally, the Au-DOX NPs were released from the nanofiber film, and they consequently inhibited the viability of CTCs by delivering DOX to the enriched CTCs. This composite nanofiber film was able to decrease the viability of CTCs significantly in the suspended and fluid states, and it is expected to limit the migration and proliferation of tumor cells.

Amplified effect of surface charge on cell adhesion by nanostructures.

Nano-biointerfaces with varied surface charge can be readily fabricated by integrating a template-based process with maleimide-thiol coupling chemistry. Significantly, nanostructures are employed for amplifying the effect of surface charge on cell adhesion, as revealed by the cell-adhesion performance, cell morphology and corresponding cytoskeletal organization. This study may provide a promising strategy for developing new biomedical materials with tailored cell adhesion for tissue implantation and regeneration.

Self-interconnecting Pt nanowire network electrode for electrochemical amperometric biosensor.

One-dimensional Pt nanostructures are of considerable interest for the development of highly stable and sensitive electrochemical sensors. This paper describes a self-interconnecting Pt nanowire network electrode (PtNNE) for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose with ultrahigh sensitivity and stability. The as-prepared PtNNE consists of polycrystalline nanowires with high-index facets along the side surface which provides more active surface atoms on kinks and steps, those ultralong nanowires being interconnected with each other to form a free-standing network membrane. The excellent structural features of the PtNNE promoted its performance as a Pt-based electrochemical sensor both in terms of electrocatalytic activity and stability. Amperometric measurements towards hydrogen peroxide were performed; the PtNNE sensor showed an extremely high sensitivity of 1360 µA mM(-1) cm(-2). This excellent sensitivity is mainly attributed to the high-index facets of the nanowires resulting in their superior electrocatalytic activity towards H2O2, and the interconnected nanowire network forming an "electron freeway" transport model, which could provide multiple electron pathways and fast electron transport on the electrode, leading to rapid reaction and sensitive signal detection. The as-prepared PtNNE also holds promise as an oxidase-based biosensor. As a proof of concept, a PtNNE-based glucose biosensor also showed an outstanding sensitivity as high as 114 µA mM(-1) cm(-2), a low detection limit of 1.5 µM, and an impressive detection range from 5 µM to 30 mM.

Nacre-inspired design of mechanical stable coating with underwater superoleophobicity.

Because of the frequent oil spill accidents in marine environment, stable superoleophobic coatings under seawater are highly desired. Current underwater superoleophobic surfaces often suffer from mechanical damages and lose their superoleophobicity gradually. It remains a challenge to fabricate a stable and robust underwater superoleophobic film which can endure harsh conditions in practical application. Nacre is one of most extensively studied rigid biological materials. Inspired by the outstanding mechanical property of seashell nacre and those underwater superoleophobic surfaces from nature, we fabricated a polyelectrolyte/clay hybrid film via typical layer-by-layer (LBL) method based on building blocks with high surface energy. 'Bricks-and-mortar' structure of seashell nacre was conceptually replicated into the prepared film, which endows the obtained film with excellent mechanical property and great abrasion resistance. In addtion, the prepared film also exhibits stable underwater superoleophobicity, low oil adhesion, and outstanding environment durability in artificial seawater. We anticipate that this work will provide a new method to design underwater low-oil-adhesion film with excellent mechanical property and improved stability, which may advance the practical applications in marine antifouling and microfluidic devices.

Controllable distribution of single molecules and peptides within oligomer template investigated by STM.

This communication provides a facile method for distributing and dispersing molecules within a molecular template. Using the self-assembled template of oligo(phenylene-ethynylene) (OPE), organic molecules such as coronene (COR) and biomolecules such as tripeptide are controllably distributed and dispersed within this molecular template on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces. COR molecules were controllably distributed into various regular arrays by simply adjusting the molecular molar ratio, while tripeptide molecules were uniformly positioned at the vacancies of the OPE template.