Nanomaterial surface modification toolkit: Principles, components, recipes, and applications.

Surface-functionalized nanostructures are at the forefront of biotechnology, providing new opportunities for biosensors, drug delivery, therapy, and bioimaging applications. The modification of nanostructures significantly impacts the performance and success of various applications by enabling selective and precise targeting. This review elucidates widely practiced surface modification strategies, including click chemistry, cross-coupling, silanization, aldehyde linkers, active ester chemistry, maleimide chemistry, epoxy linkers, and other protein and DNA-based methodologies. We also delve into the application-focused landscape of the nano-bio interface, emphasizing four key domains: therapeutics, biosensing, environmental monitoring, and point-of-care technologies, by highlighting prominent studies. The insights presented herein pave the way for further innovations at the intersection of nanotechnology and biotechnology, providing a useful handbook for beginners and professionals. The review draws on various sources, including the latest research articles (2018-2023), to provide a comprehensive overview of the field.

Investigating influences of intravenous fluids on HUVEC and U937 monocyte cell lines using the magnetic levitation method.

Intravenous fluids are being widely used in patients of all ages for preventing or treating dehydration in the intensive care units, surgeries in the operation rooms, or administering chemotherapeutic drugs at hospitals. Dextrose, Ringer, and NaCl solutions are widely received as intravenous fluids by hospitalized patients. Despite their widespread administration for over 100 years, studies on their influences on different cell types have been very limited. Increasing evidence suggests that treatment outcomes might be altered by the choice of the administered intravenous fluids. In this study, we investigated the influences of intravenous fluids on human endothelial (HUVEC) and monocyte (U937) cell lines using the magnetic levitation technique. Our magnetic levitation platform provides label-free manipulation of single cells without altering their phenotypic or genetic properties. It allows for monitoring and quantifying behavior of single cells by measuring their levitation heights, deformation indices, and areas. Our results indicate that HUVEC and U937 cell lines respond differently to different intravenous fluids. Dextrose solution decreased the viability of both cell lines while increasing the heterogeneity of areas, deformation, and levitation heights of HUVEC cells. We strongly believe that improved outcomes can be achieved when the influences of intravenous fluids on different cell types are revealed using robust, label-free, and efficient methods.

Quantifying Deformation and Migration Properties of U87 Glioma Cells Using Dielectrophoretic Forces.

Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumors. To design effective treatment strategies, we need to better understand the behavior of glioma cells while maintaining their genetic and phenotypic stability. Here, we investigated the deformation and migration profile of U87 Glioma cells under the influence of dielectrophoretic forces. We fabricated a gold microelectrode array within a microfluidic channel and applied sinusoidal wave AC potential at 3 Vpp, ranging from 30 kHz to 10 MHz frequencies, to generate DEP forces. We followed the dielectrophoretic movement and deformation changes of 100 glioma cells at each frequency. We observed that the mean dielectrophoretic displacements of glioma cells were significantly different at varying frequencies with the maximum and minimum traveling distances of 13.22 µm and 1.37 µm, respectively. The dielectrophoretic deformation indexes of U87 glioma cells altered between 0.027-0.040. It was 0.036 in the absence of dielectrophoretic forces. This approach presents a rapid, robust, and sensitive characterization method for quantifying membrane deformation of glioma cells to determine the state of the cells or efficacy of administrated drugs.

Optimization of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) reaction mixture for biosensor applications.

Genetically Modified (GM) foods are becoming the future of agriculture on surviving global natural disasters and climate change by their enhanced production efficiency and improved functional properties. On the other hand, their adverse health and environmental effects, ample evidence on transgene leakage of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to crops have raised questions on their benefits and risks. Consequently, low-cost, reliable, rapid, and practical detection of GMOs have been important. GMO-detection platforms should be capable of stably storing detection reagents for long-delivery distances with varying ambient temperatures. In this study, we developed an event-specific, closed tube colorimetric GMO detection method based on Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technique which can be integrated into GMO-detection platforms. The entire detection process optimized to 30 min and isothermally at 65 °C. The durability of the LAMP mixture in the test tubes showed that the LAMP reaction mixture, in which Bst polymerase and DNA sample was later included, yielded DNA amplicons for 3 days at room temperature, and for 6 days at 4 °C.•Simple, stable, and cheap storage method of LAMP reaction mixture for GMO-detection technologies.•GMO-detection platforms can stably store detection reagents for long-delivery distances with varying ambient temperatures.•Any DNA sample can be used in the field or resource-limited setting by untrained personnel.