Zwitterionic Thiolate-Protected Ag22(0/I) and Ag20(I) Clusters: Assembly, Structural Characterization, and Antibacterial Activity.

Zwitterionic thiolate ligands have the potential to introduce novel assembly modes and functions for noble metal clusters. However, their utilization in the synthesis of silver clusters remains understudied, particularly for the clusters containing reductive Ag(0) species. In this article, we report the first synthesis of a mixed-valence silver(0/I) cluster protected by zwitterionic Tab as thiolate ligands (Tab = 4-(trimethylammonio)benzenethiolate), denoted as [Ag22(Tab)24](PF6)20·16CH3OH·6Et2O (Ag22·16CH3OH·6Et2O), alongside an Ag(I) cluster [Ag20(Tab)12(PhCOO)10(MeCN)2(H2O)](PF6)10·11MeCN (Ag20·11MeCN). Ag22 has a distinct hierarchical supratetrahedral structure with a central {Ag6} kernel surrounded by four [Ag4(Tab)6]4+ units. High-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectra demonstrate that Ag22 has two free electrons, indicating a superatomic core. Ag20 has a drum-like [Ag12(Tab)6(PhCOO)6(H2O)]6+ inner core capped by two tetrahedral-like [Ag4(Tab)3(PhCOO)2(MeCN)]2+ units. Ag20 can be transformed into Ag22 after its reaction with NaBH4 in solution. Antibacterial measurements reveal that Ag22 has a significantly lower minimum inhibitory concentration than that of the Ag20 cluster. This work not only extends the stabilization of silver(0/I) clusters to neutral thiol ligands but also offers new materials for the development of novel antibacterial materials.

Polyhedral {Ag12} and {Ag16} Clusters: Synthesis, Structural Characterization and Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties.

Two polyhedral silver-thiolate clusters, [S@Ag16(Tab)10(MeCN)8](PF6)14 (Ag16) and [Ag12(Tab)6(DMF)12](PF6)12 (Ag12), were synthesized by using electroneutral Tab species as protective ligands (Tab=4-(trimethylammonio)benzenethiolate, DMF=N,N-dimethylformamide, MeCN=acetonitrile). Ag16 has a decahedral shape composed of eight pentagon {Ag5} units and two square {Ag4} units. The structure of Ag12 is a cuboctahedron, a classical Archimedean structure composed of six triangular faces and eight square faces. The former configuration is discovered in silver-thiolate cluster for the first time, possibly benefited from the more flexible coordination between the Tab ligand and Ag+ facilitated by the electropositive -N(CH3)3 + substituent group. Third-order nonlinear optical studies show that both clusters in DMF exhibit reverse saturate absorption response under the irradiation of 532 nm laser.

[Classification of Cimicifuga species based on 1H-NMR fingerprint combined with pattern recognition technique].

The metabolomic analysis of three Cimicifuga species was performed using H-NMR spectroscopy and pattern recognition (PR) techniques. A broad range of metabolites could be detected by 'H-NMR spectroscopy without any chromatographic separation. The analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant partial least square (DPLS) of the 1H-NMR spectrum showed a clear discrimination between C. foetida and the other two species. The major metabolites responsible for the discrimination were triterpenoid saponins and saccharides. These results indicated that the combination of 1H-NMR and PR provides a useful tool for chemotaxonomic analysis and authentification of Cimicifuga species, and could used for the quality control of plant materials.

Preparation of a shared chip for cell capturing and imaging with nanoparticle scaffold, nanogap and circulating tumor cell detection.

Aim: To achieve accurate detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a large-volume sample. Materials & methods: Silica nanoparticles were crosslinked layer-by-layer on glass slides as the substrate of a chip using polyacrylic acid. Polyacrylic acid was immobilized as a spacer and capture ligands were immobilized on the spacer. Results: The chip can be integrally applied to capture, post-treatment and imaging detection for CTCs. The detected cell numbers were 33 and 40 for 9 cell/ml samples and clinical blood samples (7.5 ml), respectively. The detection ratio of positive samples was 100%. Conclusion: The significantly increased detected number for CTCs indicates that this methodology may avoid or greatly reduce the false-negative ratio of positive clinical samples.

Detection of DNA based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer of polyelectrolyte-protected CdTe quantum dots as energy donors.

The approach for DNA detection was established by using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system, in which the energy donor was poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride-protected quantum dots and the energy receptor was ethidium bromide (EB) inserting into the double stranded DNA. The concentration of the probe DNA, EB and NaCl was optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the FRET system has a stable signal and good reproducibility. The linear range is 7.7-61.6 nM with the correlation coefficient of 0.998 and the limit of detection is 7.7 nM. This method is simple and sensitive, and makes the label-free DNA detection come true.

Typing and determination of SNP functional gene based on highly selective and signal-amplified fluorescence double-probe with the help of ExoIII nuclease and magnetic bead.

We have developed a fluorescence double-probe detection system with signal amplification for simple typing and determination of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) functional gene based on non-sequence dependence of ExoIII nuclease on dsDNA and rapid separation of magnetic bead. Matched detected gene can cyclically release abundant fluorescence-labeled ssDNA from the probe and the corresponding measured fluorescence signal is amplified up to 6063 times. In this case, the probe cannot release the measured fluorescence signal for the point mutation gene and then the corresponding measured signal is inhibited. According to signal amplification and inhabitation of the probe, we proposed both an accurate genotyping approach with strong specificity and a sensitive determination approach with high selectivity for SNP functional gene. For qualitative genotyping, there are obvious genotype-based differences of measured fluorescence phenotypes among three kinds of the samples of the investigated SNP. The quantitative determinations of its wild-type gene and mutant gene have all a good linearity in the range from 0.5 to 500 pmol/L with the correlation coefficients R2 of 0.9940 and 0.9911, and a high sensitivity with the detection limits of 0.11 and 0.20 pmol/L, respectively. Compared to the usual single-probe detection system, the developed double-probe system can achieve not only accurate genotyping but also the sensitive gene determination. Meanwhile, it is also a simple and reliable method for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of functional gene.

Fabrication of surface charge pH-sensitive multi-bumpy small magnetic bead with ultrahigh magnetic content and its ultrahigh loading capacity and salt-free rapid isolation for DNA.

Gene transfection vector polyethyleneimine (PEI) was used as a cross-linking agent to crosslink the surface epoxidized magnetic nanoparticles and aggregate them to form a small magnetic bead (MB) with multiple nanoscale bumps on its surface (i.e. the multi-bumpy small magnetic bead, mbsMB). As there is a very low content of non-magnetic components (the cross-linking agent) in the magnetic bead, the mbsMB has an ultrahigh magnetic content of 81.95 % and a smaller particle size of 1.4 µm when compared with the usual medical MB. Such a small MB also has a strong magnetic force allowing it to reach the rapid separating ability of the commonly used larger medical MB which has 8 times its volume. The mbsMB has an obvious pH sensitivity of positive and negative surface charges and the salt-free isolation of DNA has been achieved based on the electrostatic interactions between mbsMB and DNA. This avoids the desalting of the isolated DNA as well as the effects of high salt concentration on its long chain helix structure. Whether in an acidic absorbing medium, an alkalinous desorbing one or a near neutral particle-storing one, the mbsMB will have obvious surface electrostatic charges. There is also its good suspension stability in an aqueous medium which provides a good condition for isolating of DNA suitable for efficiently adsorbing and desorbing. The as-prepared MB has a unique surface structure and some excellent properties, all suitable for adsorbing DNA. In addition, a large amount of commonly used gene transfection vector PEI can be cross-linked and bonded on the surface of mbsMB, whilst still having an excellent DNA-loading ability. In summary, the mbsMB has an ultrahigh capacity of 629.49 mg/g for DNA load.

Typing SNP based on the near-infrared spectroscopy and artificial neural network.

Based on the near-infrared spectra (NIRS) of the measured samples as the discriminant variables of their genotypes, the genotype discriminant model of SNP has been established by using back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN). Taking a SNP (857G>A) of N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) as an example, DNA fragments containing the SNP site were amplified by the PCR method based on a pair of primers to obtain the three-genotype (GG, AA, and GA) modeling samples. The NIRS-s of the amplified samples were directly measured in transmission by using quartz cell. Based on the sample spectra measured, the two BP-ANN-s were combined to obtain the stronger ability of the three-genotype classification. One of them was established to compress the measured NIRS variables by using the resilient back-propagation algorithm, and another network established by Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm according to the compressed NIRS-s was used as the discriminant model of the three-genotype classification. For the established model, the root mean square error for the training and the prediction sample sets were 0.0135 and 0.0132, respectively. Certainly, this model could rightly predict the three genotypes (i.e. the accuracy of prediction samples was up to 100%) and had a good robust for the prediction of unknown samples. Since the three genotypes of SNP could be directly determined by using the NIRS-s without any preprocessing for the analyzed samples after PCR, this method is simple, rapid and low-cost.

Polyelectrolyte-protected Dual-color-quantum-dot Assembled Silica Nanoparticles and Their Application in Simultaneous Fluorescence Determination of e Antigen and Surface Antigen of Hepatitis B.

Cationic poly-diallyldimethylammonium (PDADMAC), green CdTe quantum dots (QDs) or red CdS coated CdTe QDs, and anionic polyacrylic acid (PAA) were respectively assembled on the nano-carrier SiO2 to prepare green fluorescence composite nanoparticles (GF-QDs) and red ones (RF-QDs) with the structure SiO2/PDADMAC/QD/PDADMAC/PAA. The sandwich structure "PDADMAC/QD/PDADMAC" on the nano-carrier not only realized the protection to fluorescence of QDs but also avoided the fluorescence shielding of silica shell for the assembled QDs. In 7 days, the diluent solutions of GF-QD and RF-QD all have a very stable fluorescence. On the contrary, the fluorescence of diluent solutions of red and green QDs reduced by 75.99 and 94.35%, respectively. Indeed, they have not fluorescent shielding and have a very slight fluorescent enhancement. Based on GF-QD and RF-QD, the simultaneous determination of Hepatitis B e antigen and surface antigen has been established. Their determination in buffer and plasma all showed good precision and accuracy.

Chemometric classification of traditional Chinese medicines by their geographical origins using near-infrared reflectance spectra.

Some raw materials that have different places of production for the plant sources of the drugs Astragalus membranaceus and ginseng have been studied, based on their near-infrared reflectance spectra. The experimentally recorded spectra represent heavily ill-posed and highly correlative data sets. Three related methods, i.e. the Fisher linear discriminant analysis (FLDA), the ridge-type linear discriminant analysis (RLDA) and a newly proposed penalized ridge-type linear discriminant analysis (PRLDA), have been investigated. FLDA over-fits for the training objects of the two data sets to a high extent and is unstable for the predictive objects of the two data sets. RLDA shows obvious improvement in terms of over-fitting and unstability, but the stability for the predictive objects of the two data sets is too sensitive to their ridge-type penalized weights, tending to produce erroneous discrimination results. The proposed PRLDA can circumvent the two aforementioned problems with a large domain of penalized weights for correct discriminant analysis of the two data sets studied. The combination of the PRLDA method and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy can be adapted for the discrimination of the production places of plant sources of these drugs.

Polyelectrolyte-based electrochemiluminescence enhancement for Ru(bpy)3²âº loaded by SiO2 nanoparticle carrier and its high sensitive immunoassay.

In this paper the strong electrochemiluminescence (ECL) nanoparticles have been prepared based on the anionic polyelectrolyte sodium polyacrylate (PAA)-ECL enhancement for Ru(bpy)3(2+), which were loaded by the carrier of SiO2 nanoparticle. There were two kinds of Ru(bpy)3(2+) for the as-prepared nanoparticles, the doped one and the exchanged one. The former was loaded inside the ECL nanoparticles by doping, in a form of ion-pair macromolecules PAA-Ru(bpy)3(2+). The corresponding ECL was enhanced about 2 times owing to the doping increase of Ru(bpy)3(2+). The latter was loaded on the PAA-doped Nafion membrane by ion exchange. The corresponding ECL was enhanced about 3 times owing to the ion-exchanging increase of Ru(bpy)3(2+). At the same time, ECL intensity of the doped-inside Ru(bpy)3(2+) was further enhanced 13 times because polyelectrolyte PAA in the doped membrane could obviously enhance electron transfer between the doped Ru(bpy)3(2+) and the working electrode. Furthermore, based on hydrophobic regions of the doped membrane antibody labeling could be easily realized by the as-prepared nanoparticles and then a high sensitive ECL immunoassay for HBsAg was developed. The linear range was between 1.0 and 100 pg mL(-1) (R(2)=0.9912). The detection limit could be as low as 0.11 pg mL(-1) (signal-to-noise ratio=3).

Competitive interactions of adriamycin and ethidium bromide with DNA as studied by full rank parallel factor analysis of fluorescence three-way array data.

The competitive interactions of adriamycin (AMC) and a fluorescence probe of ethidium bromide (EB) with DNA have been studied by full rank parallel factor analysis (FRA-PARAFAC) of fluorescence excitation-emission three-way data array. The excitation and emission spectra as well as the equilibrium concentrations of co-existing species in different reaction mixtures can be directly obtained by the FRA-PARAFAC treatment. The concordance of the resolved excitation and emission spectra of AMC, EB and EB-DNA with the standard spectra of these species confirmed the reliability of the equilibrium concentrations of these components in the reaction mixtures studied. The results obtained are valuable for providing a deeper insight into the competitive interaction mechanism of AMC and EB with DNA. The conclusion was directly given out that the interaction of AMC with DNA is the intercalating model. The FRA-PARAFAC method as exemplified by the present study provides an useful approach for studying the interaction of clinical drugs with DNA in the presence of disturbance of drug assistants.

Preparation of strongly fluorescent silica nanoparticles of polyelectrolyte-protected cadmium telluride quantum dots and their application to cell toxicity and imaging.

Based on the polyelectrolyte-protected CdTe quantum dots (QDs), which were prepared by self-assembling of QDs and poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) in the help of electrostatic attraction, the strong fluorescence silica nanoparticles (QDs-PDADMAC@SiO(2)) have been prepared via a water-in-oil reverse microemulsion method. Transmission electron microscopy and Zeta potential analysis were used to characterize the as-prepared nanoparticles. All of the particles were almost spherical and there is a uniform distribution of the particle size with the average diameter about 25 nm. There is a large Zeta potential of -35.07 mV which is necessary for good monodispersity of nanoparticles solution. As compared with the QDs coated by SiO(2) (QDs@SiO(2)), the QDs-PDADMAC@SiO(2) nanoparticles have much stronger fluorescence, and their fluorescence stability could be obviously improved. Moreover, QDs-PDADMAC@SiO(2) exhibits good biological compatibility which promotes their application in cellular imaging.

The expert system of genotype discrimination for D5S818 locus based on near-infrared spectroscopy-principal discriminant variate.

This paper studied the expert system of genotype discrimination for the STR locus D5S818 based on near-infrared spectroscopy-principal discriminant variate (PDV). Six genotypes, i.e. genotypes 10-10, 10-11, 11-11, 11-12, 11-13 and 13-13, were selected as research subjects. Based on the optimum polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions, about 54 measuring samples for each genotype were obtained; these samples were tested by near-infrared spectroscopy directly. With differences between homozygote genotypes and heterozygote ones, and differences of the total number of core repeat units between the six genotypes, two types of genotyping-tree structure were constructed and their respective PDV models were studied using the near-infrared spectra of the samples as recognition variables. Finally, based on the classification ability of these two genotyping-tree structures, an optimum expert system of genotype discrimination was built using the PDV models. The result demonstrated that the built expert system had good discriminability and robustness; without any preprocessing for PCR products, the six genotypes studied could be discriminated rapidly and correctly. It provided a methodological support for establishing an expert system of genotype discrimination for all genotypes of locus D5S818 and other STR loci.

Cytotoxicity and cellular imaging of quantum dots protected by polyelectrolyte.

The nanocomposites of poly-diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) and CdTe quantum dots (QDs) (i.e. QDs-PDADMAC nanocomposites) have been prepared based on electrostatic interaction and their fluorescence stability in aqueous solution has been investigated. MTT method (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide method) was used to study their cytotoxicity and A549 lung cancer cell as a model cell was also used to evaluate their cellular imaging. It was shown that the fluorescence stability of QDs-PDADMAC nanocomposites was much better than that of bare QDs both in aqueous solution and cell. Meanwhile, QDs-PDADMAC nanocomposites display very low cytotoxicity in the low concentrations and better staining ability compared with QDs. QDs-PDADMAC nanocomposites will have great advantage on the cell analysis detection and imaging.

Preparation of chlorogenic acid surface-imprinted magnetic nanoparticles and their usage in separation of traditional Chinese medicine.

The chlorogenic acid (CGA) surface-imprinted magnetic polymer nanoparticles have been prepared via water-in-oil-in-water multiple emulsions suspension polymerization. This kind of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MIPs) had the core-shell structure with the size of about 50 nm. Magnetic susceptibility was given by the successful encapsulation of Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles with a high encapsulation efficiency of 19.3 wt%. MIPs showed an excellent recognition and selection properties for the imprinted molecule CGA. The recognition capacity of MIPs was near three times than that of non-imprinted polymer nanoparticles (NIPs). Compared with the competitive molecule caffeic acid (CFA), the selectivity of MIPs for CGA was 6.06 times as high as that of NIPs. MIPs could be reused and regenerated, and their rebinding amount in the fifth use was up to 78.85% of that in the first use. The MIPs prepared were successfully applied to the separation of CGA from the extract of Traditional Chinese Medicine Honeysuckle.

Fast determination of the release degree of compound sulfamethoxazole tablets by using circulation release system combined with ultraviolet spectral net analyte signal method.

Based on ultraviolet spectral net analyte signals, this research has studied the determination of the two effective components, sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) and trimethoprim (TMP), contained in compound sulfamethoxazole tablets in acid environment. The linear ranges of SMZ and TMP were 0.48-7.84 microg/ml (the regression correlation coefficient r = 0.9981) and 0.12-1.5 microg/ml (r = 0.9986), the corresponding average recoveries were 99.5 and 101.0%, respectively, and the relative standard deviations were 1.87 and 3.60%, respectively. The method was simple, fast and accurate. A circulation release system for the determination of the tablet release degree has been built, and the on-line filtering and small-volume sampling could thus be carried out. Thanks to the combination of the circulation release system and the determination method of SMZ and TMP in acid environment, the determination of release degree for compound sulfamethoxazole tablets was fast and accurate, especially for the early time of rapid release.

The determination for the three genotypes of D16S539 locus based on near-infrared spectroscopy and chemical pattern recognition.

The paper has established an approach of typing short tandem repeats (STRs) based on the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-chemical pattern recognition. Taking the three genotypes 9-9, 9-11 and 11-11 of D16S539 locus as example, which have a middle degree of difference, DNA fragments containing the polymorphism sites were amplified by a pair of primers to obtain three genotypes samples; these samples were tested by the NIRS directly; using their spectra as recognition variables, the chemical pattern recognition models of the three genotypes were respectively established by using the principal discriminant variate (PDV) and support vector machine (SVM). The two models have a good fitting ability and strong prediction (i.e. the predicting accuracy was 100%). They are robust for these strong collinear spectra and the small number of the calibration samples. Without any preprocessing for the analyzed samples after PCR, the three genotypes of D16S539 locus could be indirectly determined by using the NIRS-s of the samples with the help of the models. This method is simple, rapid and low cost.

A new redundant variable pruning approach--minor latent variable perturbation-PLS used for QSAR studies on anti-HIV drugs.

A new approach for eliminating the redundant variables in the multivariable data matrix encountered in QSAR studies, minor latent variable perturbation (MLVP)-PLS method has been proposed. In the latent variable (LV) space, the minor latent variables (LVs) with small covariances are mainly formulated by linear combinations of the redundant variables including information-deficient and highly correlative ones, while the major LVs with large covariances are mainly contributed by the informative variables. Deleting a minor LV, which is equivalent to a perturbation for LV space, could make the redundant variables not well be represented in LV subspace, leading to strong variation of their PLS regression coefficients. The informative variables could still be normally represented in LV subspace with the PLS regression coefficients remaining relatively stable. MLVP-PLS utilizes this fact to discriminate the informative and redundant variables. It gradually identifies and eliminates the redundant variables according to the relative variation of PLS regression coefficients after perturbations are given. The elimination process is terminated according to some proposed criteria. Applying the method to the quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies on TIBO derivatives as potential anti-HIV drugs has demonstrated the feasibility and robustness of the proposed approach. A deeper insight into the effect of different structural parameters on the bio-activity of TIBO derivatives has been reached.