Increased risk of fetal left-right asymmetry disorders associated with maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first trimester.

Our center has observed a substantial increase in the detection rate of fetal left-right(LR) asymmetry disorders between March and May 2023. This finding has raised concerns because these pregnant women experienced the peak outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in China during their first trimester. To explore the relationship between maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection and fetal LR asymmetry disorders. A retrospective collection of clinical and ultrasound data diagnosed as fetal LR asymmetry disorders was conducted from January 2018 to December 2023. The case-control study involved fetuses with LR asymmetry disorders and normal fetuses in a 1:1 ratio. We evaluated and compared the clinical and fetal ultrasound findings in pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection and pregnant women without infection. The Student t-test was utilized to compare continuous variables, while the chi-squared test was employed for univariable analyses. The incidence rate of LR asymmetry disorders from 2018 to 2023 was as follows: 0.17‰, 0.63‰, 0.61‰, 0.57‰, 0.59‰, and 3.24‰, respectively. A total of 30 fetuses with LR asymmetry disorders and 30 normal fetuses were included. This case-control study found that SARS-CoV-2 infection (96.67% vs 3.33%, P = .026) and infection during the first trimester (96.55% vs 3.45%, P = .008) were identified as risk factors. The odds ratio values were 10.545 (95% CI 1.227, 90.662) and 13.067 (95% CI 1.467, 116.419) respectively. In cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first trimester, the majority of infections (88.1%, 37/42) occurred between 5 and 6 weeks of gestation. We found that 43.7% (66/151) of fetuses with LR asymmetry disorder had associated malformations, 90.9% (60/66) exhibited cardiac malformations. SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first trimester significantly increases the risk of fetal LR asymmetry disorders, particularly when the infection occurs between 5 and 6 gestation weeks. The most common associated malformation is heart malformation.

Supramolecular recognition enhanced electrochemical sensing: ß-cyclodextrin and Pd nanoparticle co-decorated 3D reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite-modified glassy carbon electrode for the quantification of ractopamine.

Ractopamine (RAC) is universally known for improving lean meat percentage in livestock and thus is widely introduced as a feed additive. However, it is difficult to eliminate the RAC residue in animal tissues from the biological system and will inevitably harm human health. Hence, detecting RAC molecules in biological samples is extremely significant. Herein, a novel strategy of supramolecular recognition-enhanced electrochemical sensing is presented. This platform was constructed by coupling ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) with palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs)-functionalized three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (3D-rGO) to form a nanocomposite (3D-rGO/Pd/ß-CD), which was further used to modify a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for RAC detection. Benefiting from the attractive electrical conductivity and catalytic activity of 3D-rGO/Pd, as well as the unique small-molecule-recognition ability of ß-CD demonstrated by 1H NMR spectrum, which revealed the 1 : 2 binding mode of RAC with ß-CD, increased peak current signals of RAC were observed in the cyclic voltammetry (CV) test. Under optimized conditions, the wide linear concentration range spanned 1-95 µM, along with a relatively low detection limit of 0.12 µM (S/N = 3), as evidenced by the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) approach. The platform also exhibited satisfactory stability and fine reproducibility, as well as high selectivity and good anti-interference capability. Moreover, this as-obtained sensor was efficiently applied in pork samples with a high recovery rate (96.44-103.99%), which provides a promising view of its electrochemical biosensing ability in practical applications.

A selective electrochemical chiral interface based on a carboxymethyl-ß-cyclodextrin/Pd@Au nanoparticles/3D reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for tyrosine enantiomer recognition.

Palladium@gold nanoparticle modified three-dimensional-reduced graphene oxide (3D-rGO/Pd@Au) was coupled with carboxymethyl-ß-cyclodextrin to form a novel nanocomposite (3D-rGO/Pd@Au/CM-ß-CD). The 3D-rGO/Pd@Au/CM-ß-CD served as a chiral sensing interface for the electrochemical enantiorecognition of tyrosine (Tyr) via a differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) approach. The 3D-rGO/Pd@Au demonstrates good electrical conductivity and efficient catalytic activity as an electrochemical indicator. Simultaneously, the CM-ß-CD displays a supramolecular chiral selectivity to reveal a higher binding affinity to the target L-tyrosine (L-Tyr) than to D-tyrosine (D-Tyr). Under the optimized determining conditions, the oxidation peak current ratio of L-Tyr to D-Tyr (IL/ID) was 2.12, meanwhile, the peak currents of the two isomers were linearly proportional to the concentration over the range of 0.8-130 µM with LODs of 52 nM and 96 nM for L- and D-Tyr (S/N = 3), respectively. This approach exhibits distinguished sensitivity, excellent selectivity and good reproducibility, as well as great stability, which can accurately determine the relative content of L- or D-Tyr enantiomers in a racemic solution.