High throughput sensing of multiple amino acids with differential pulse voltammetry measurement.

The content of amino acids in human body is closely related to human health and plays an important role in physiological regulation and medical function. In order to recognize a variety of amino acids, an electrochemical sensor array based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) electrode was established by using two kinds of electropolymerizers, i.e., citrate and the mixture of citrate and potassium nitrate as sensing elements. Different electropolymerizers lead result in different amount of negative charge on PEDOT electrode, which leads to different adsorption capacity for positive charge amino acids and different repulsion capacity for negative charge amino acids, bringing about obvious changes in differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) current. The five amino acids were accurately identified by linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and the electrochemical sensor array was successfully applied in the differential detection of amino acids in milk.

Synthesis of 2'-deoxyguanosine from 2'-deoxyadenosine via C2 nitration.

An efficient synthetic method has been developed for the synthesis of 2'-deoxyguanosine from the more commercially available 2'-deoxyadenosine via late-stage C2 nitration in 48.7% total yield by a 5-step synthetic procedure. Crucially, 2'-deoxyadenosine was fully protected by bennzoyl groups and then nitrated at C2 by tetrabutylammonium nitrate/trifluoroacetic anhydride. The resulting 2-NO2 moiety was converted into 2-NH2 by Ni-catalyzed hydrogenolysis. Finally, 2'-deoxyguanosine was obtained from the diaminopurine intermediate by deaminase-catalyzed reaction. Furthermore, the 2-NO2 moiety also appeared to be a versatile handle to introduce a variety of functional groups, resulting in a divergent access to 2-substituted 2'-deoxyadenosine analogues.

The effect of sublethal concentrations of benzalkonium chloride on the LuxS/AI-2 quorum sensing system, biofilm formation and motility of Escherichia coli.

Escherichia coli can survive improper disinfection processes, which is a potential source of contamination of food products. Benzalkonium chloride (BC) is a common disinfectant widely used in food industry. Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) plays a major role in food spoilage, biofilm formation and food-related pathogenesis. Understanding QS can help to control the growth of undesirable food-related bacteria. The LuxS/AI-2 QS system of E. coli has been confirmed to regulate many important phenotypes including biofilm formation and motility. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effect of sublethal concentrations of BC on the LuxS/AI-2 system of E. coli isolates from retail meat samples, as well as bacterial biofilm formation and motility. Our results showed that sublethal concentrations of BC promoted AI-2 production in four test E. coli isolates. The results from microplate assay and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) analysis indicated that sublethal concentrations of BC enhanced biofilm formation of E. coli. When treated with sublethal concentrations of BC, exopolysaccharides (EPS) production during biofilm development increased significantly and swimming motility of tested isolates was also promoted. The expression levels of luxS, biofilm-associated genes and flagellar motility genes were increased by BC at sublethal concentrations. Our findings underline the importance of proper use of the disinfectant BC in food processing environments to control food contamination by E. coli.

A novel self-supported structure of Ce-UiO-66/TNF in a redox electrolyte with high supercapacitive performance.

A novel self-supported structure of Ce-UiO-66/TNF was firstly synthesized by growing Ce-UiO-66 on a TNF substrate. This novel Ce-UiO-66/TNF material was proved to possess a high supercapacitive performance in the redox electrolyte of Fe(CN)63-/4-, and it was also the first study for Ce-UiO-66 material on the supercapacitor application. High specific capacitances of 6.9 and 2.5 Fcm-2 can be achieved at large current densities of 20 and 80 mAcm-2, respectively. After 10,000 charge-discharge cycles, the capacitance retention can be kept at 95% and the coulomb efficiency can be maintained over 98%. Such outstanding electrochemical performance may be related to the redox property of the electrolyte, high specific surface area of the Ce-UiO-66 material, porous characteristic of the TNF substrate and self-supported structure of the whole electrode.

Efficient Synthesis of Cladribine via the Metal-Free Deoxygenation.

The efficient synthesis of cladribine via the metal-free deoxygenation was developed. Using (Bu4N)2S2O8/HCO2Na instead of Bu3SnH/AIBN as deoxygenation system, cladribine could be obtained with good yield and even on tens of grams scales. The intermediates and product could be purified by simple work-up process and chromatography was avoided, which showed the good future for industrial applications.