Wanying Zhu

Novel electrochemical sensing platform based on magnetic field-induced self-assembly of Fe3O4@Polyaniline nanoparticles for clinical detection of creatinine

A novel electrochemical sensing platform based on magnetic field-induced self-assembly of Fe3O4@Polyaniline nanoparticles (Fe3O4@PANI NPs) has been for the first time fabricated for the sensitive detection of creatinine in biological fluids. The template molecule, creatinine, was self-assembled on the surface of Fe3O4@PANI NPs together with the functional monomer aniline by the formation of N-H hydrogen bonds. After pre-assembled, through the magnetic-induction of the magnetic glassy carbon electrode (MGCE), the ordered structure of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were established by the electropolymerization and assembled on the surface of MGCE with the help of magnetic fields by a simple one-step approach. The structural controllability of the MIPs film established by magnetic field-induced self-assembly was further studied. The stable and hydrophilic Fe3O4@PANI can not only provide available functionalized sites with which the template molecule creatinine can form hydrogen bond by the abundant amino groups in PANI matrix, but also afford a promoting pathway for electron transfer. The as-prepared molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor (MIES) shows good stability and reproducibility for the determination of creatinine with the detection limit reached 0.35 nmol L(-1) (S/N=3). In addition, the highly sensitive and selective MIES has been successfully used for the clinical determination of creatinine in human plasma and urine samples. The average recoveries were 90.8-104.9% with RSD lower than 2.7%.

Fe3O4@rGO doped molecularly imprinted polymer membrane based on magnetic field directed self-assembly for the determination of amaranth

Based on magnetic field directed self-assembly (MDSA) of Fe3O4@rGO composites, a novel magnetic molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor (MIES) was fabricated and developed for the determination of the azo dye amaranth. Fe3O4@rGO composites were obtained by a one-step approach involving the initial intercalating of iron ions between the graphene oxide layers via the electrostatic interaction, followed by the reduction with hydrazine hydrate to deposit Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto the reduced oxide graphene nanosheets. In molecular imprinting, the complex including the function monomer of aniline, the template of amaranth and Fe3O4@rGO was pre-assembled through π-π stacking and hydrogen bonding interactions, and then was self-assembled on the surface of magnetic glassy carbon electrode (MGCE) with the help of magnetic field induction before electropolymerization. The structures and morphologies of Fe3O4@rGO and the doped molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), Raman spectra and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Besides, the characterization by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) showed that Fe3O4@rGO composites promoted the electrical conductivity of the imprinted sensors when doped into the MIPs. The adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics were employed to evaluate the performances of MIES. The detection of amaranth was achieved via the redox probe K3[Fe(CN)6] by blocking the imprinted cavities, which avoided the interferences of oxidation products and analogs of amaranth. Furthermore, the prepared MIES exhibited good sensitivity, selectivity, reproducibility and efficiency for detecting amaranth in fruit drinks. The average recoveries were 93.15-100.81% with the RSD <3.0%.

Vanillin-molecularly targeted extraction of stir bar based on magnetic field induced self-assembly of multifunctional Fe3O4@Polyaniline nanoparticles for detection of vanilla-flavor enhancers in infant milk powders

A molecularly imprinted stir bar was constructed based on Fe3O4@Polyaniline nanoparticles with magnetic field-induced self-assembly process. The monomer, methacrylic acid, was pre-assembled into the pre-polymers with vanillin as template by the formation of hydrogen bonds. After that, the magnetic complexes were generated by the hydrogen bonding, the hydrophobic and π-π interaction between the pre-polymers and Fe3O4@Polyaniline. The complexes were adsorbed on the surface of magnetic stir bar under the magnetic induction, and the coating of vanillin-molecularly imprinted polymers was generated by the one-step copolymerization basing on the cross linking of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The molecular imprinting stir bar showed superior selectivity and fast binding kinetics for vanillin, and was used for the enrichment of vanilla-flavor enhancers (vanillin, ethyl maltol and methyl vanillin) in infant milk powders. The results measured by HPLC-UV exhibited good linear ranges of 0.01-100, 0.02-100 and 0.03-100μgmL(-1) with the limit of detection of 2.5-10.0ngmL(-1), and the recoveries were 94.7-98.9%, 82.1-96.7% and 84.5-93.2% with RSD<7.2% for the three enhancers, respectively.

Facile and controllable one-step fabrication of molecularly imprinted polymer membrane by magnetic field directed self-assembly for electrochemical sensing of glutathione

Based on magnetic field directed self-assembly (MDSA) of the ternary Fe3O4@PANI/rGO nanocomposites, a facile and controllable molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor (MIES) was fabricated through a one-step approach for detection of glutathione (GSH). The ternary Fe3O4@PANI/rGO nanocomposites were obtained by chemical oxidative polymerization and intercalation of Fe3O4@PANI into the graphene oxide layers via π-π stacking interaction, followed by reduction of graphene oxide in the presence of hydrazine hydrate. In molecular imprinting process, the pre-polymers, including GSH as template molecule, Fe3O4@PANI/rGO nanocomposites as functional monomers and pyrrole as both cross-linker and co-monomer, was assembled through N-H hydrogen bonds and the electrostatic interaction, and then was rapidly oriented onto the surface of MGCE under the magnetic field induction. Subsequently, the electrochemical GSH sensor was formed by electropolymerization. In this work, the ternary Fe3O4@PANI/rGO nanocomposites could not only provide available functionalized sites in the matrix to form hydrogen bond and electrostatic interaction with GSH, but also afford a promoting network for electron transfer. Moreover, the biomimetic sensing membrane could be controlled more conveniently and effectively by adjusting the magnetic field strength. The as-prepared controllable sensor showed good stability and reproducibility for the determination of GSH with the detection limit reaching 3 nmol L(-1) (S/N = 3). In addition, the highly sensitive and selective biomimetic sensor has been successfully used for the clinical determination of GSH in biological samples.

Aggregation-induced emission from gold nanoclusters for use as a luminescence-enhanced nanosensor to detect trace amounts of silver ions.

Several research have reported that silver ions (Ag(+)) could enhance the photoluminescence of some kinds of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), and redox reaction involved mechanisms were recognized as the main reason to cause such phenomenon. However, in this work, we found that Ag(+) could enhance the luminescence of aggregation-induced emission gold nanoclusters (AIE-AuNCs) without valence state change. Upon addition of Ag(+), the luminescence of AIE-AuNCs enhanced instantly by 7.2 times with a red-shift of emission peak and a complete restoration of luminescence features was observed when Ag(+) was removed. A cost-effective, rapid-response, highly sensitive and selective method to detect trace amount of Ag(+) has thereby been established using AIE-AuNCs as a nanosensor. This analytical method exhibited a linear range of 0.5nM-20μM with a limit of detection of 0.2nM and it showed great promise for Ag(+) monitoring in environmental water.

Sensitive and Label-Free Fluorescent Detection of Transcription Factors Based on DNA-Ag Nanoclusters Molecular Beacons and Exonuclease III-Assisted Signal Amplification

Transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression by binding to regulatory regions, and their dysregulation is involved in numerous diseases. Thus, they are therapeutic targets and potential diagnostic markers. However, widely used methods for TFs detection are either cumbersome or costly. Herein, we first applied DNA-Ag nanoclusters molecular beacons (AgMBs) in TFs analysis and designed an assay based on the switchable fluorescence of AgMBs. In the absence of TFs, a single-stranded DNA functioned as a reporter is released from a double-stranded DNA probe (referred as dsTFs probe) under exonuclease III (Exo III) digestion. Then, the reporter triggers downstream Exo III-assisted signal amplification by continuously consuming the guanine-rich enhancer sequences in AgMBs, resulting in significant fluorescent decrease eventually. Conversely, the presence of TFs protects the dsTFs probe from digestion and blocks the downstream reaction to keep a highly fluorescent state. To testify this rationale, we utilized nuclear factor-kappa B p50 (NF-κB p50) as a model TFs. Owing to the amplification strategy, this method exhibited high sensitivity toward NF-κB p50 with a limit of detection of 10 pM, and a broad linear range from 30 pM to 1.5 nM. Furthermore, this method could detect multiple TFs in human colon cancer DLD-1 cells and reflect the variation in their cellular levels after stimulation. Finally, by conducting an inhibition assay we revealed the potential of this method for screening TFs-targeted drugs and calculating the IC50 of corresponding inhibitors.

Development and application of novel clonazepam molecularly imprinted coatings for stir bar sorptive extraction.

The molecularly imprinted magnetic stir bar coatings were created based on graft-functional Fe3O4 nanoparticles with magnetic field-induced self-assembly. The magnetic complex including clonazepam as template, the graft-functional Fe3O4 nanoparticles and methacrylic acid as monomers was pre-assembled through π-π interaction and hydrogen bonding, then was directionally adsorbed on the surface of magnetic stir bar under the magnetic induction. The molecularly imprinted coating with well-ordered structure was generated by one-step copolymerization based on the cross linking of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The molecularly imprinted coating with multiple recognition sites could be manufactured and applied in polar solvents, and showed superior selectivity and fast binding kinetics for benzodiazepines. The analytes in herbal health foods, treated by stir bar sorptive extraction, were determined by HPLC-UV. Good linearity was observed in the range of 0.01-2 μg mL(-1). The content of clonazepam in the herbal health foods was found to be 44 ng g(-1), and the average recoveries were 89.8-103.3% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) <6.5%, demonstrating the successful application in real sample analysis.

A turn-on fluorescence aptasensor based on carbon dots for sensitive detection of adenosine

In this paper, a novel turn-on fluorescence aptasensor has been designed for adenosine detection based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from single-stranded DNA labeled carbon dots (ssDNA-CDs) to aptamer modified gold nanoparticles (aptamer-AuNPs). In the absence of adenosine, the fluorescence of ssDNA-CDs was quenched by aptamer-AuNPs via the formation of an aptamer–ssDNA duplex. The introduced adenosine competed to displace ssDNA-CDs by specifically binding to the aptamer, resulting in the recovery of the quenched fluorescence of ssDNA-CDs. Under optimized conditions, the increase in fluorescence intensity was proportional to the concentration of adenosine with a linear range of 10–500 nM and allowed a limit of detection as low as 4.2 nM. In addition, this method was successfully applied to adenosine determination in human serum samples with satisfactory results.

Detecting transcription factors with allosteric DNA-Silver nanocluster switches

Sensitive and efficient detection of protein markers, such as transcription factors (TFs), is an important issue in postgenomic era. In this paper, we report a DNA nanodevice, allosteric DNA-silver nanocluster switches (AgSwitches), for TFs detection. The mechanism of this nanodevice is based on the binding-induced allostery whereby the binding between AgSwitches and TFs alters the conformation of AgSwitches. This alteration brings DNA-silver nanocluster (DNA-AgNCs) and guanine-rich enhancer sequences (GRS) into close proximity, generating fluorescent enhancement for quantifications. Our results revealed that the sequence design of AgSwitches can be rationally optimized according to stimulated free energy, and we demonstrated that this method can not only be used for detecting TFs in nuclear extracts of cells, but also be developed as a tool for screening inhibitors of TFs. Overall, this work expanded the category allosteric DNA nanodevices by first introducing DNA-AgNCs into this area, and the obtained method was efficient for TFs-related investigations.

A label-free electrochemical aptasensor based on magnetic biocomposites with Pb2+-dependent DNAzyme for the detection of thrombin

Herein, a novel magnetic biocomposite (Fe3O4@Au-S1/S2) was applied to analyze thrombin. The Fe3O4@Au-S1/S2 consisted of Fe3O4@Au nanoparticles (Fe3O4@Au NPs) as carriers for magnetic separation and magnetic field-induced self-assembly, thiolated complementary strand (S1) anchored based on Au-S bond and thrombin binding aptamer (S2) as a recognition element. As a redox indicator, methylene blue (MB) can be adsorbed to DNA anchored on the surface of Fe3O4@Au NPs by electro-static interaction. In the absence of thrombin, MB were adsorbed on double-stranded DNA (S1/S2) which anchored on Fe3O4@Au NPs and a high electrochemical signal of MB was recorded by Differential pulse voltammetry. Conversely, the complementary strand (S1) exposed after thrombin competitively bonded with aptamer. The introduction of Pb2+-dependent DNAzyme (S3) split S1 at specific rA site, resulting in the significantly decreased adsorption capacity of MB. Thus, the thrombin detection could be recorded by monitoring the electrochemical signal reduction of MB through incubation of thrombin with S3. This method exhibited a high sensitivity toward thrombin with a broad linear range from 5 pmol L-1 to 5 nmol L-1 and a limit of detection of 1.8 pmol L-1.