NIR Photocontrolled Fluorescent Nanosensor under a Six-Branched DNA Nanowheel-Induced Nucleic Acid Confinement Effect for High-Performance Bioimaging.

Although DNA nanotechnology is a promising option for fluorescent biosensors to perform bioimaging, the uncontrollable target identification during biological delivery and the spatially free molecular collision of nucleic acids may cause unsatisfactory imaging precision and sensitivity, respectively. Aiming at solving these challenges, we herein integrate some productive notions. On the one hand, the target recognition component is inserted with a photocleavage bond and a core-shell structured upconversion nanoparticle with a low thermal effect is further employed to act as the ultraviolet light generation source, under which a precise near-infrared photocontrolled sensing is achieved through a simple external 808 nm light irradiation. On the other hand, the collision of all of the hairpin nucleic acid reactants is confined by a DNA linker to form a six-branched DNA nanowheel, after which their local reaction concentrations are vastly enhanced (∼27.48 times) to induce a special nucleic acid confinement effect to guarantee highly sensitive detection. By selecting a lung cancer-associated short noncoding microRNA sequence (miRNA-155) as a model low-abundance analyte, it is demonstrated that the newly established fluorescent nanosensor not only presents good in vitro assay performance but also exhibits a high-performance bioimaging competence in live biosystems including cells and mouse body, propelling the progress of DNA nanotechnology in the biosensing field.

Smart NIR light-gated CRISPR/Cas12a fluorescent biosensor with boosted biological delivery and trans-cleavage activity for high-performance in vivo operation.

Despite the in vitro usage of CRISPR/Cas12a system in fluorescent biosensors has made remarkable achievements, many challenges such as poor biological delivery, insufficient sensitivity, and uncontrollable initiation compel them hard to conduct in vivo analysis. Thus, we propose here some fruitful sensing concepts. First, the multiple biomolecular components of CRISPR/Cas12a system are collectively carried by MnO2 nanosheets via a simple physical absorption to achieve a highly-efficient biological uptake. Under the reduction of widespread biothiols, not only the sensing frame is easily released but also sufficient Mn2+ is produced to serve as an effective trans-cleavage accelerator. Furthermore, a photocleavge-linker induced smart near-infrared (NIR) light-gated manner is designed to offer a spatiotemporal target recognition, for which a 808 nm NIR light transduced ultraviolet upconversion luminescence with weak thermal effect is employed to completely prevent the sensing flow from pre-initiating during the biological delivery. As a conceptual validation, this biosensor has satisfactory sensitivity and specificity to survivn messenger RNA (a broad-spectrum cancer biomarker). More importantly, it can work as a reliable imaging platform for differentiating cancers in live cellular level and also presents a high-performance operation ability for analyzing live mice, greatly promoting the CRISPR technology in biosensing field.

A Self-Made Optical Tweezers Integrated Upconversion Luminescence Confocal Scanning Instrument Enables Stable and Noninvasive Long-Term In Situ Imaging a Single Suspension Cell Under Exceptionally Efficient Luminescent Resonance Energy Transfer Sensing.

It is necessary to explore labeling probes with worthy optical properties and a noninvasive fluorescence imaging manner for stable long-term in situ measuring a single suspension cell. In response to these goals, we herein make a breakthrough on two fronts. On one hand, a co-sensitizer-induced efficient 808 nm near-infrared light-excited luminescence-confined upconversion nanoparticle with a low thermal effect is fabricated by employing a layer-by-layer seed growing approach to develop a sandwich structure, under which the luminescence domain is vastly restricted into an extremely thin inner shell (∼ 2.77 nm) to finally bring about a high-efficiency luminescent resonance energy transfer (LRET) sensing behavior. On the other hand, a self-made optical tweezers integrated upconversion luminescence confocal scanning instrument is applied to enhance the imaging accuracy, after which the liquid viscous force is sufficiently overcome by the resulting single beam gradient force and the analyzed suspension cell is always immobilized to the focal plane to ensure a constant luminescence excitation condition. By making use of a metal ion-dependent DNAzyme and a hairpin DNA strand to design a corresponding LRET sensing system, our nanoprobe shows satisfactory assay performance for two model biomolecules (Ca2+ and TK1 messenger RNA). Following the optical trapping-assisted imaging, this exceptional measurement method is capable of effectively monitoring the intracellular target changes in different physiological states, endowing a powerful toolbox for single cell analysis.

Upconversion Luminescence-Initiated and GSH-Responsive Self-Driven DNA Motor for Automatic Operation in Living Cells and In Vivo.

In light of the worthy design flexibility and the good signal amplification capacity, the recently developed DNA motor (especially the DNA walker)-based fluorescent biosensors can offer an admirable choice for realizing bioimaging. However, this attractive biosensing strategy not only has the disadvantage of uncontrollable initiation but also usually demands the supplement of exogenous driving forces. To handle the above obstacles, some rewarding solutions are proposed here. First, on the surface of an 808 nm near-infrared light-excited low-heat upconversion nanoparticle, a special ultraviolet upconversion luminescence-initiated three-dimensional (3D) walking behavior is performed by embedding a photocleavage linker into the sensing elements, and such light-controlled target recognition can perfectly overcome the pre-triggering of the biosensor during the biological delivery to significantly boost the sensing precision. After that, a peculiar self-driven walking pattern is constructed by employing MnO2 nanosheets as an additional nanovector to physically absorb the sensing frame, for which the reduction of the widespread glutathione in the biological medium can bring about sufficient self-supplied Mn2+ to guarantee the walking efficiency. By selecting an underlying next-generation broad-spectrum cancer biomarker (survivin messenger RNA) as the model target, we obtain that the newly formed autonomous 3D DNA motor shows a commendable sensitivity (where the limit of detection is down to 0.51 pM) and even an outstanding specificity for distinguishing single-base mismatching. Beyond this sound assay performance, our sensing approach is capable of working as a powerful imaging platform for accurately operating in various living specimens such as cells and bodies, showing a favorable diagnostic ability for cancer care.

A Photoresponsive and Metal-Organic Framework Encapsulated DNA Tetrahedral Entropy-Driven Amplifier for High-Performance Imaging Intracellular MicroRNA.

The further development of high-performance fluorescent biosensors to image intracellular microRNAs is beneficial to cancer medicine. By virtue of the need for enzymes and hairpin DNA probes, the entropy-driven reaction-assisted signal amplification strategy has shown an enormous potential to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, this good option still meets with poor biostability, low cell uptake efficiency, and unsatisfactory accuracy. On the basis of these challenges, we put forward here a battery of solving pathways. First, the straight DNA probes are anchored onto the vertexes of dual DNA tetrahedrons, and thus the enzyme resistance of the whole sensing system is observably enhanced. A metal-organic framework (ZIF-8 nanoparticle), which can be effectively dissociated into a weakly acidic environment, then is employed as an additional delivery vehicle to encapsulate such a DNA tetrahedron sustained biosensor and finally bring about a more efficient endocytosis. Last, a kind of photocleavage-linker triggered photoresponsive manner is incorporated to achieve an exceptional precise target identification, by which the biosensor can only be initiated under the irradiation of an externally mild 365 nm ultraviolet light source. In accordance with the above efforts, worthy assay performance toward microRNA-196a has given rise to this newly constructed biosensor, whose sensitivity is down to 2.7 pM and also able to distinguish single-base variation. Beyond that, the amplifier can work as a powerful imaging toolbox to accurately determine the targets in living cells, providing a promising intracellular sensing platform.

Light-Activated and Self-Driven Autonomous DNA Nanomachine Enabling Fluorescence Imaging of MicroRNA in Living Cells with Exceptional Precision and Efficiency.

Owing to their favorable design flexibility and eminent signal amplification ability, DNA nanomachine-supported biosensors have provided an attractive avenue for intracellular fluorescence imaging, especially for DNA walkers. However, this promising option not only suffers from poor controllability but also needs to be supplied with additional driving forces on account of the frequent employment of metal ion-dependent DNAzymes. Aiming at overcoming these obstacles, we introduce some fruitful solutions. On one hand, innovative light-activated walking behavior induced by a photocleavage mode is established on the surfaces of gold nanoparticles, and such a photoselective sensing system can be perfectly prevented from pre-activating during the intracellular delivery process and made to achieve target identification only under irradiation using a moderate ultraviolet light source. On the other hand, this light-switchable sensing frame is encapsulated within a dissociable metal-organic framework (ZIF-8) to facilitate endocytosis and ensure sufficient internal cofactors (Zn2+) to realize a self-driven pattern in the acidic environment of the cell lysosome. Based on the abovementioned efforts, the newly constructed autonomous three-dimensional DNA walkers present satisfactory sensitivity (a limit of detection of down to 19.4 pM) and specificity (even distinguishing single-base changes) toward a model biomarker (microRNA-21). More importantly, the sensing method allows determination of the variations in targets in living cancer cells with exceptional precision and efficiency, offering a powerful assay platform for intracellular imaging.

Photo-gated and self-powered three-dimensional DNA motors with boosted biostability for exceptionally precise and efficient tracing of intracellular survivin mRNA.

Benefiting from the outstanding signal amplification effect and the admirable construction flexibility, the currently proposed DNA motors (particularly DNA walkers) based biosensing concepts have provided a forceful fluorescence imaging tool for intracellular detection. Even so, this promising sensing means is not only subject to poor controllability and prone to produce false signals but also requires exogenous powering forces owing to the common employment of DNAzyme. In response to these challenges, we are herein motivated to present some meaningful solving strategies. For one thing, the surfaces of gold nanoparticles are conducted with a photo-gated walking behavior by introducing a photocleave mode, under which the light-switchable DNA walkers are capable of being selectively activated via an external ultraviolet source to faultlessly prevent the sensing frame from being pre-initiated during cellular uptake and intracellular delivery. For another, the intracellular biothiols are consumed by MnO2 nanosheets to effectively avoid the competitions to Au-S bonds to eliminate potential false outputs and also self-supply sufficient cofactors (Mn2+) to actualize a self-powered operation pattern as well as facilitate the endocytosis process. Following these breakthroughs, a favorable analysis performance towards a model tumor biomarker (survivin mRNA) is endowed with the newly raised biosensor, whose sensitivity is low to pM level with a sound specificity for identifying single base mismatching. Moreover, the significantly improved autonomous three-dimensional DNA walkers can be used to determine and dynamically trace the targets in live cancer cells with an exceptional precise and efficient manner, commendably impelling the sensing ability of DNA motors in biological specimens.

[Baseline correction of Raman spectrum based on piecewise linear fitting].

The baseline drifts of Raman spectra occur in many types of instrumental measurements. It is an important part and a routine step to correct the baseline drift for the data preprocessing. In the present work, the limitations of the baseline correction method based on polynomial fitting were highlighted and a modified polynomial fitting method, i. e. piecewise linear fitting method, was proposed. Combined with the computer, this method could eliminate the baseline automatically. A series of Raman spectra of single polystyrene bead, red blood cell or yeast cell acquired by laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy were preprocessed by this method and its efficiency was verified. The results demonstrated that piecewise linear fitting can correct the baseline shifts effectively and provides more accurate information for further data analysis. It is a feasible method for correction of Raman spectrum.

Research on microbial lipid production from potato starch wastewater as culture medium by Lipomyces starkeyi.

In this paper, potato starch wastewater as culture medium was treated by the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi to biosynthesize microbial lipid. The result indicated that carbon source types, carbon source concentration, nitrogen source types, nitrogen source concentration, inoculum size, and cultivation time all had a significant effect on cell growth and microbial lipid accumulation in batch cultures. A measure of 120 g/L of glucose concentration, 3.0 g/L of (NH4)2SO4 concentration, 10% inoculum size, and incubation time 96 h cultivated in a shaking flask at 30 °C were found to be the optimal conditions not only for cell growth but also for lipid synthesis. Under this condition, the cellular biomass and lipid content could reach 2.59 g/L and 8.88%, respectively. This work provides a new method for effective utilization of potato starch wastewater, which has particular social and economic benefits for yeast treatment technology.

[Analysis of astaxanthin in Phaffia rhodozyma using laser tweezers raman spectroscopy].

In the present paper, a method was established based on laser tweezer Raman spectroscopy for rapid quantification of astaxanthin in Phaffia rhodozyma cells. First, the Raman spectra of astaxanthin standard solution with different concentrations were determined and the standard curve for astaxanthin with the peak intensity at 1 520 cm- was plotted; And then the Phaffia yeast cells cultivated in different nitrogen source and carbon source medium were divided into two parts, one for the detection of Raman spectra, and the other for the determination of ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry; Finally the relationship between the two methods was analyzed. The correlation coefficient of standard curve for astaxanthin is 0.998 3. Comparing laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy method with traditional ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry in analyzing the content of astaxanthin in unit mass Phaffia rhodozyma and the yield of astaxanthin in unit volume fermentation broth of Phaffia rhodozyma, the authors found that the data obtained have good linear relationship. And the correlation coefficients are 0.917 7 and 0.905 4, respectively. Therefore, both methods have almost the same effect of measuement. But laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy method is more efficient in the quantitative analysis of astaxanthin in Phaffia rhodozyma cells.

[Analysis of pigments from Rhodotorula glutinis by Raman spectroscopy and thin layer chromatography].

The pigments from Rhodotorula glutinis were separated by using thin layer chromatography, and the result showed that Rhodotorula glutinis cells could synthesize at least three kinds of pigments, which were beta-carotene, torulene, and torularhodin. The Raman spectra based on the three pigments were acquired, and original spectra were preprocessed by background elimination, baseline correction, and three-point-smoothing, then the averaged spectra from different pigments were investigated, and the result indicated that Raman shift which represents C-C bond was different, and the wave number of beta-carotene demonstrated the largest deviation, finally torulene and torularhodin in Rhodotorula glutinis had more content than beta-carotene. Quantitative analysis of Raman peak height ratio revealed that peak height ratio of pigments showed little difference, which could be used as parameters for further research on living cells, providing reference content of pigments. The above results suggest that Raman spectroscopy combined with thin layer chromatography can be applied to analyze pigments from Rhodotorula glutinis, provides abundant information about pigments, and serves as an effective method to study pigments.

[Calibration methods of infrared spectra for geographical origins determination of Radix Zanthoxyli].

The instrument and the experimental environment influence the infrared spectra, which may limited the identification of the samples by a prediction model. Based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technology, the authors performed different infrared spectral calibration methods for Radix Zanthoxyli geographical origins determination, the SIMCA was used to establish an identification models, and the model was used to distinguish samples from four different regions of Guangxi. According to the result of prediction, the authors could obtain the most suitable calibration method for the identification model. The results showed that, respectively, by the multiple scattering correction and standard normal variation, their PCA data distribution and the distance between models is ideal, suggesting that we can eliminate the interference from the environmental and human factors by these two correction methods, and also separate each samples of different habitats. The test using the method to measure the geographical origins of Radix Zanthoxyli proved that the recognition rate and rejection rate are both at or near 100%. Visible, and both the multiplicative scatter correction and the standard normal variation are all the ideal calibration methods for Radix Zanthoxyli infrared spectral geographical origins determination.

Microbial treatment of the monosodium glutamate wastewater by Lipomyces starkeyi to produce microbial lipid.

The monosodium glutamate (MSG) wastewater as a medium was treated by Lipomyces starkeyi to produce microbial lipid in the study. The effect of related factors (initial glucose concentration, inoculation concentration, initial culture pH, and cultivation time) on biomass, lipid production and lipid content was discussed, respectively. According to the experiments, the optimal fermentation conditions were determined: addition of 80g/L glucose, 10% inoculation concentration, initial pH about 5.0, incubation time 96h. Under this condition, the biomass production reached up to 4.61g/L, lipid production and lipid content was 1.14g/L and 24.73%, respectively. Simultaneously, protein and COD removal rate was 78.60% and 74.96%, respectively. The main composition of fatty acid in the resultant lipid was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, which showed: oleic acid (C18:1) 35.85%, palmitic acid (C16:0) 19.91%, palmitoleic acid (C16:1) 17.65%, and myristic acid (C14:0) 16.03%.

[Identification of Cortex Phellodendri by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and principal component analysis].

Fourier transform infrared spectrometer was used to collect infrared spectra of Cortex Phellodendri from six different regions. Original spectra were preprocessed by carrying out appropriate baseline correction and five-points smoothing, and the averaged spectra of Cortex Phellodendri from the six origins were analyzed. As a result, the averaged spectra looked quite similar. The normalized spectra were selected to construct principal component analysis model in the range of fingerprint region 1800 - 500 cm(-1), and according to the model, the first three principal components accounted for 98% of the variance information in the fingerprint region, and each sample was able to form distinct cluster in the principal component space, then the identification of Cortex Phellodendri from the six regions was basically achieved; besides, to some extent, the sparse density of the samples distribution reflected the genetic relationship. The loading factors of the model were analyzed, and the results indicated that the differences between Cortex Phellodendri samples mostly depended on the contents of protein, carbohydrates, lipids, alkaloids, sterols, obaculactone, oba-cunone, and obacunonlc acid. On the whole, combined with principal component analysis, FTIR provides an effective way to evaluate the herbal Cortex Phellodendri rapidly and nondestructively, which also reflects the content difference of material composition.

[Raman tweezers-based analysis of carotenoid synthesis in Rhodotorula glutinis].

Carotenoid synthesis in Rhodotorula glutinis was investigated with Raman tweezers in order to find the effect of nitrogen and carbon resource on carotenoid yield. The cells in fermentation terminus were harvested, and then divided into two parts, one for UV analysis, the other for Raman tweezers detection. Original spectra were preprocessed by carrying out background elimination and baseline correction, and the averaged spectra of cells cultivated in different fermentation medium were analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that the Raman intensity of carotenoid were obviously different. There was a high correlation between UV results and Raman peak height data, the correlation coefficients of fitted parameters were 0.907 8 and 0.912 1, respectively. Quantitative analysis of 1 508 cm(-1) peak height indicated that the appropriate nitrogen and carbon resources for the growth of Rhodotorula glutinis cells and synthesis of carotenoid were yeast extract + tryptone, and glucose, respectively. The above results suggest that Raman tweezers can provide information about carotenoids in Rhodotorula glutinis cells and serve as an effective tool for real time measurement of carotenoid synthesis and optimization of fermentation medium.

[Sorting oleaginous yeast by using optical manipulation and Raman spectroscopy].

Extensive research has been carried out in an effort to screen the oleaginous microorganisms. Here, Raman spectroscopy and laser tweezers were used to sort oleaginous yeast from mixed yeast cells. The preprocessing of subtracted background, 17 points S-G smoothing filter, polynomial fitting baseline correction and vector normalization were performed and the main features information of intracellular substances from the Raman spectroscopy of yeast cells was extracted by combining principal component analysis. Based on the distinguished composition of oleaginous yeast and non-oleaginous different yeast, a sorting model was established. The test yeast cell in optical trapping was distinguished real-time by the model referring to its Raman spectra. The cells distinguished as oleaginous yeast were collected by means of optical manipulation. The sorted oleaginous yeast cells were verified by microbial culture and Sudan black B test. The result illustrates that Raman spectroscopy combined with optical manipulation is an effective technique for sorting oleaginous yeast and other economic microorganisms.

[Origins determination of Herba Abri cantoniensis and Herba Abri mollis with FTIR combined with fuzzy cluster and curve-fitting].

The methods of fuzzy cluster and curve-fitting combined with FTIR were used to determine the origins of Herba Abri cantoniensis and Herba Abri mollis. The spectra of Herba Abri cantoniensis and Herba Abri mollis are similar, both with typical spectral shapes. The two spectra can be divided into 3 parts: the 1st is 3 500-2 800 cm(-1), containing stretching bands of -OH, N-H, and CH2 ; the 2nd is 1 800-800 cm(-1), containing stretching bands of ester carbonyl group and indican C-O(H), vibrational bands of C=C and benzene ring; The 3rd is 800-400 cm(-1), containing skeletal vibration and scissoring vibration of molecular. The recorded FTIR spectral data were processed by 9-point-smoothing, 1st derivative, SNV and fuzzy cluster analysis sequentially. The fuzzy cluster analysis was carried out by similarity or dissimilarity matrix, and two matrices are computed with Manhattan and Euclidean distance. The results indicated that the optimization used Manhattan and dissimilarity matrix, and 5 origins of Herba Abri cantoniensis were perfectly discriminated, but 2 origins of Herba Abri mollis were mixed and identified from the other 3 origins. So the characterized bands at 1 034 cm(-1) of the average 1-D spectra of Herba Abri cantoniensis and Herba Abri mollis were fitted combining 2nd derivative for further distinguishing their spectral characteristic. The results of curve-fitting showed that the bands of wild Herba Abri cantoniensis and the other origin ones were decomposed to 11 and 9 component bands respectively, but the bands of Shanglin and the other origins Herba Abri mollis were decomposed to 9 and 8 component bands dissimilarly, and the locations and normalized densities of these component bands were different. From this, together with the results of fuzzy cluster analysis, it is concluded that the combination of two methods may identify the origins of Herba Abri cantoniensis and Herba Abri mollis availably.