A One Step Strategy Based on Hollow Gold Nanoparticles to Detect C-Reactive Protein with High Sensitivity (Hs-CRP) in Serum for Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease.

Purpose: Rapid detection and diagnosis of diseases facilitate timely and effective treatment of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The establishment of a one-step rapid detection method provides a new method for the initial screening and disease risk assessment of patients with cardiovascular diseases in primary medical units. Methods: Hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNPs) were synthesized using a cobalt template method followed by use as signal amplification probes for ultra-sensitive quantitative detection of serum C-reactive protein (CRP). To induce the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and improve protein labeling efficiency, we developed a sensitive detection mode by coating polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30) on the HGNPs, resulting in a significant improvement in detection performance. Results: Compared to traditional colloidal GNP-based LFTA, PVP-coated HGNPs exhibit a lower visual detection limit of 1 ng/mL, which a 25-fold decrement compare to using GNPs as the antibody-labeled probe, and the detection limit could be reduced to 0.14 ng/mL under the quantitative instrument. Conclusion: The one-step method based on HGNP immunochromatographic strips modified with PVP established in this study can be used for the detection of CRP and hs-CRP in biological samples. The performance of the immunochromatographic technique designed in this study was evaluated from the perspective of synthetic markers, and the application conditions of this strip were screened, verifying its high specificity, indicating that it has high sensitivity and strong detection limit compared to colloidal gold. The sensitivity of the hollow gold immunochromatographic test strip in this article has been increased by about 25 times, providing a new method for rapid detection of CVD in clinical diagnosis.

Novel nanostructure-coupled biosensor platform for one-step high-throughput quantification of serum neutralizing antibody after COVID-19 vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccination efficacy depends on serum levels of the neutralizing antibodies (NAs) specific to the receptor-binding domain of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein. Therefore, a high-throughput rapid assay capable of measuring the total SARS-CoV-2 NA level is urgently needed for COVID-19 serodiagnosis, convalescent plasma therapy, vaccine development, and assessment. Here, we developed a novel nanoplasmonic immunosorbent assay (NanoPISA) platform for one-step rapid quantification of SARS-CoV-2 NAs in clinical serum samples for high-throughput evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. The NanoPISA platform enhanced by the use of nanoporous hollow gold nanoparticle coupling was able to detect SARS-CoV-2 NAs with a limit of detection of 0.2 pM within 15 min without washing steps. The one-step NanoPISA for SARS-CoV-2 NA detection in clinical specimens yielded good results, comparable with those obtained in the gold-standard seroneutralization test and the surrogate virus-neutralizing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Collectively, the one-step NanoPISA might be a rapid and high-throughput NA-quantification platform for evaluating the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Serum Metabolic Biomarkers in Early Diagnosis and Risk Stratification of Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Despite advances in the treatment of coronary diseases, acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. ACS is associated with metabolic abnormalities of lipid oxidation stress. In this study, based on liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry technique, we conducted the metabolic profiling analysis of serum samples from stable plaques (SPs) and vulnerable plaques (VPs) in ACS patients for exploring the potential biomarkers of plaque stability. The results showed that four differential metabolites were identified between the SPs and VPs, including betaine, acetylcarnitine, 1-heptadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, and isoundecylic acid. Meanwhile, the diagnostic model was identified using stepwise logistic regression and internally validated with 10-fold cross-validation. We analyzed the correlations between serum metabolic perturbations and plaque stability, and the serum betaine and ejection fraction-based model was established with a good diagnostic efficacy [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.808, sensitivity = 70.6%, and specificity = 80.0%]. In summary, we firstly illustrate the comprehensive serum metabolic profiles in ACS patients, suggesting that the combined model of serum betaine and ejection fraction seems to be used as the potential diagnostic biomarker for the vulnerability of plaque stability.

Electrically controlled Goos-Hänchen shift of a light beam reflected from the metal-insulator-semiconductor structure.

We proposed a scheme to manipulate the Goos-Hänchen shift of a light beam reflected from the depletion-type device via external voltage bias. It is shown that the lateral shift of the reflected probe beam can be easily controlled by adjusting the reverse voltage bias and the incidence angle. Using this scheme, the lateral shift can be tuned from negative to positive, without changing the original structure of the depletion-type device. Numerical calculations further indicate that the influence of structure parameters and light wavelength can be reduced via readjustment of the reverse bias. The proposed structure has the potential application for the integrated electronic devices.