DNA水凝胶的制备及应用

脱氧核糖核酸(Deoxyribonucleic acid,DNA)不仅可作为生物遗传的物质基础,又以其可编程性、功能多样性、生物相容性和生物可降解性等优点,在生物材料的构建方面表现出巨大的潜力。DNA水凝胶是一种主要由DNA参与形成的三维网状聚合物材料,同时因其保留的DNA生物性能与自身骨架的机械性能的完美融合使得它成为近年来最受关注的新兴功能高分子材料之一。目前,基于各种功能核酸序列或通过结合不同的功能材料制备的单组分或多组分DNA水凝胶,已广泛用于生物医学、分子检测及环境保护的研究或应用领域中。文中主要总结了近十几年来DNA水凝胶制备方法上的研究进展,探讨了DNA水凝胶的分类策略,并进一步综述了DNA水凝胶在药物运输、生物传感、细胞培养等方面的应用研究。最后对DNA水凝胶未来的发展方向以及可能面临的挑战进行了展望。     

环境DNA及其在水生生态系统保护中的应用

环境DNA(environmental DNA,e DNA)是指可以从环境样品(如水、土壤、空气、冰芯等)中直接提取到的DNA片段总和。e DNA技术是在确定调查物种或种群的特异性基因识别片段的基础上,利用各种分子手段检测从环境介质中所提取e DNA包含识别片段的情况,进而确定取样环境中生物的分布状况,包括e DNA获取、e DNA分析和结果分析3个阶段,是近年来新出现的一种生物调查方法。与传统方法相比,e DNA技术具有灵敏度高、省时省力、对调查对象无损伤等优点,不要求调查者具有传统的生物识别及鉴定经验。目前e DNA技术已被应用于目标物种(如入侵物种、濒危物种及其他稀有物种)"有无"的检测、生物量的估测、水体生物多样性的调查等,在水生生态系统的保护中具有广泛的应用前景,但目前仅在少数发达国家展开应用,亟待进一步推广。目前研究者们所用的e DNA方法各不相同,有待对现有方法进行完善并建立技术标准;作为一种调查方法,其时间及空间精确度有待进一步评价;利用e DNA技术估测生物量的准确度还较低,建议首先提高对e DNA产生与降解动力学的认识,再进一步寻求提高其准确度的方法。     

基于酶电极的乳酸检测生物传感器

乳酸(C₃H₆O₃),又名2-羟基丙酸、丙醇酸,属于羟基酸的一种。乳酸在食品工业、临床医学、生物技术等行业具有极其重要的意义,因此如何高通量检测不同样品中的乳酸成为目前业界研究的重点。传统乳酸检测方法操作繁琐、费时费力或需要昂贵的检测设备,乳酸生物传感器可以克服这些限制,不需要样品制备,能够快速、简便、可靠地定量测定食品或血浆中的乳酸,具有广阔的应用前景。乳酸酶电极生物传感器主要有两种类型——基于L-乳酸氧化酶(L-LOD)和L-乳酸脱氢酶(L-LDH)的乳酸生物传感器。本文综述了L-LOD和L-LDH结构特征、来源及催化机理,讨论了改善基于酶电极的乳酸传感器性能的3种策略(电极材料改造策略、酶固定化策略、酶分子工程改造策略),还根据用于制造乳酸生物传感器的不同载体包括膜、透明凝胶基质、水凝胶载体、纳米颗粒等对乳酸生物传感器进行了归类分析,最后本文将目前商品化应用的酶电极乳酸生物传感器特点进行了对比总结讨论,阐述了乳酸生物传感器的未来应用方向,并对未来发展前景进行了展望。     

刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的性质及其应用

DNA水凝胶作为一种生物合成分子,既具有DNA分子的特异性、生物可降解性和分子识别等特性,又具有水凝胶的高亲水性等特征。刺激响应型DNA水凝胶主要是在环境因素的刺激下,利用常规DNA序列经Watson-Crick碱基互补配对形成的DNA分支结构或多种功能核酸的特殊DNA序列形成的i-motif结构; T-A·T三螺旋结构、C-G·C~+三螺旋结构及G-四链体结构等对环境的响应行为使水凝胶形成及应用。近年来,刺激响应型DNA水凝胶因其在温度、pH、光、金属离子、生物分子等单刺激因素,以及光热、金属离子、有机物、温度与p H等多刺激因素下的独特应答性质,在生物传感、生物成像、药物递送、生物材料等方面得到了广泛的应用。综述了刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的形成方法、分类及其核酸来源,形成后的表征手段以及在环境刺激下的响应行为与应用,概括了目前刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的研究热点,并就其未来发展趋势做出了预测。     

刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的性质及其应用 *

DNA水凝胶作为一种生物合成分子,既具有DNA分子的特异性,生物可降解性和分子识别等特性,又具有水凝胶的高亲水性等特征.刺激响应型DNA水凝胶主要是在环境因素的刺激下,利用常规DNA序列经Watson-Crick碱基互补配对形成的DNA分支结构或多种功能核酸的特殊DNA序列形成的i-motif结构;T-A·T三螺旋结构,C-G·C ⁺三螺旋结构及G-四链体结构等对环境的响应行为使水凝胶形成及应用.近年来,刺激响应型DNA水凝胶因其在温度,pH,光,金属离子,生物分子等单刺激因素,以及光热,金属离子,有机物,温度与pH等多刺激因素下的独特应答性质,在生物传感,生物成像,药物递送,生物材料等方面得到了广泛的应用.综述了刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的形成方法,分类及其核酸来源,形成后的表征手段以及在环境刺激下的响应行为与应用,概括了目前刺激响应型DNA水凝胶的研究热点,并就其未来发展趋势做出了预测.     

环境DNA metabarcoding及其在生态学研究中的应用

环境DNA metabarcoding(eDNA metabarcoding)是指利用环境样本(如土壤、水、粪便等)中分离的DNA进行高通量的多个物种(或高级分类单元)鉴定的方法。近年来,该方法引起了学者的广泛关注,逐渐应用于生物多样性研究、水生生物监测、珍稀濒危物种和外来入侵物种检测等生态学领域。介绍环境DNA metabarcoding的含义和研究方法;重点介绍环境DNA metabarcoding在物种监测、生物多样性研究和食性分析等生态学领域中的应用;总结环境DNA metabarcoding应用于生态学研究领域面临的挑战并对该方法的发展进行展望。     

DNA芯片技术研究进展

DNA芯片技术是近年来发展迅速的生物高技术 .其基本过程是采用寡核苷酸原位合成或显微打印手段 ,将大量探针片段有序地固化于支持物如硅芯片的表面 ,然后与扩增、标记的生物样品杂交 ,通过对杂交信号的检测分析 ,即可得出样品的遗传信息 .该技术不仅可以对遗传信息进行定性、定量分析 ,而且扩展到基因组研究和基因诊断等方面的应用 .尽管目前在硬件和软件上还面临一些困难 ,但其发展和应用的前景广阔 .     

功能核酸DNA水凝胶的理化特性及应用进展

自DNA被开发为纳米级的自组装材料以来,凭借其可调节的多功能性、便利的可编程性、精确的分子识别能力、高通用性以及优越的生物相容性和生物降解性连接了生命科学和材料科学两大领域。受益于DNA纳米材料的结构特性,以功能核酸作为构建单元,经交联、自组装形成的功能核酸DNA水凝胶已成为新型材料领域的研究热点。基于此,对功能核酸DNA水凝胶所具有的主要理化特性进行了总结,并进一步综述了近年来功能核酸DNA水凝胶在药物递送与靶向治疗、生物传感、三维组织构建等生物医学、分子检测及环境工程等领域中的应用进展。最后,从生命科学和材料科学的角度总结了在设计与搭建功能核酸DNA水凝胶时应考虑的关键点和方向,以期助力DNA水凝胶在多学科领域的研究与应用。     

哺乳类基因工程的一些实验操作 实验4 琼脂糖凝胶电泳

一、琼脂箱凝胶的制备 1．电泳槽与点样孔梳的选择进行琼脂糖凝胶 电泳的电泳槽通常有水平板型和垂直板型两种。这里 我们选择较简便，应用最广的平板型电泳槽。点样孔 杭可根据样品数目、点样量等作出选择。对于一定量 的样品来说．，宽而薄的梳子可产生较细而平直的带，适 合于酶切图谱的分析等，较狭的梳子可增加待测样品 检出的灵敏度，适合于印迹杂交检测哺乳类基因组中 单拷贝基因或DNA样品的量较少等情况。点样孔梳 选定后，再根据凝胶的厚度，就可算出每一点样孔中可 以加入的样品体积。     

基因芯片技术检测细菌耐药性的研究进展

基因芯片技术是将无数预先设计好的寡核苷酸、cDNA、基因组 (Genomic)DNA在芯片上做成点阵 ,与样品中同源核酸分子杂交 ,对样品的序列信息进行高效的解读和分析 ,大规模获取相关生物信息。该技术应用领域主要有表达谱分析、基因突变及多态性分析、疾病诊断和预测、DNA测序、药物筛选、检测筛选耐药基因、微生物菌种鉴定及致病机制研究等。着重介绍了基因芯片技术检测细菌耐药性方面的国外研究进展。基因芯片可以大量、快捷地检测出细菌耐药性菌株以及引起细菌耐药性的基因的突变 ,由于其在检测中的高效率 ,因此要优越于传统的细菌学检测技术。基因芯片技术在细菌耐药性检测中有着巨大的应用价值 ,具有广阔的应用前景。     

功能核酸DNA水凝胶的制备与组装

功能核酸DNA水凝胶是一种以DNA为构建单元通过化学反应或物理缠结自组装而成的新型柔性材料,其构建单元中包含1种或多种能够形成功能核酸的特定序列。功能核酸是通过碱基修饰和DNA分子之间的相互作用力组合的一类特定核酸结构,包括核酸适配体、DNA核酶、G-四联体(G-quadruplex,G4)和i-motif结构等。传统上,高浓度的长DNA链是制备DNA水凝胶的必要条件,而核酸扩增方法的引入为DNA水凝胶的组装方式提供了新的可能。因此,对常用于制备DNA水凝胶的多种功能核酸以及核酸的提取、合成和扩增手段进行了详细的介绍。在此基础上,综述了通过化学或物理交联方式组装功能核酸DNA水凝胶的制备方法。最后,提出了DNA纳米材料的组装所面临的挑战和潜在的发展方向,以期为开发高效组装的功能核酸DNA水凝胶提供参考。     

Carbon dioxide induced silk protein gelation for biomedical applications

We present a novel method to fabricate silk fibroin hydrogels using high pressure carbon dioxide (CO(2)) as a volatile acid without the need for chemical cross-linking agents or surfactants. The simple and efficient recovery of CO(2) post processing results in a remarkably clean production method offering tremendous benefit toward materials processing for biomedical applications. Further, with this novel technique we reveal that silk protein gelation can be considerably expedited under high pressure CO(2) with the formation of extensive β-sheet structures and stable hydrogels at processing times less than 2 h. We report a significant influence of the high pressure CO(2) processing environment on silk hydrogel physical properties such as porosity, sample homogeneity, swelling behavior and compressive properties. Microstructural analysis revealed improved porosity and homogeneous composition among high pressure CO(2) specimens in comparison to the less porous and heterogeneous structures of the citric acid control gels. The swelling ratios of silk hydrogels prepared under high pressure CO(2) were significantly reduced compared to the citric acid control gels, which we attribute to enhanced physical cross-linking. Mechanical properties were found to increase significantly for the silk hydrogels prepared under high pressure CO(2), with a 2- and 3-fold increase in the compressive modulus of the 2 and 4 wt % silk hydrogels over the control gels, respectively. We adopted a semiempirical theoretical model to elucidate the mechanism of silk protein gelation demonstrated here. Mechanistically, the rate of silk protein gelation is believed to be a function of the kinetics of solution acidification from absorbed CO(2) and potentially accelerated by high pressure effects. The attractive features of the method described here include the acceleration of stable silk hydrogel formation, free of residual mineral acids or chemical cross-linkers, reducing processing complexity, and avoiding adverse biological responses, while providing direct manipulation of hydrogel physical properties for tailoring toward specific biomedical applications.     

Highly extensible, tough, and elastomeric nanocomposite hydrogels from poly(ethylene glycol) and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles

Unique combinations of hard and soft components found in biological tissues have inspired researchers to design and develop synthetic nanocomposite gels and hydrogels with elastomeric properties. These elastic materials can potentially be used as synthetic mimics for diverse tissue engineering applications. Here we present a set of elastomeric nanocomposite hydrogels made from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHAp). The aqueous nanocomposite PEG-nHAp precursor solutions can be injected and then covalently cross-linked via photopolymerization. The resulting PEG-nHAp hydrogels have interconnected pore sizes ranging from 100 to 300 nm. They have higher extensibilities, fracture stresses, compressive strengths, and toughness when compared with conventional PEO hydrogels. The enhanced mechanical properties are a result of polymer nanoparticle interactions that interfere with the permanent cross-linking of PEG during photopolymerization. The effect of nHAp concentration and temperature on hydrogel swelling kinetics was evaluated under physiological conditions. An increase in nHAp concentration decreased the hydrogel saturated swelling degree. The combination of PEG and nHAp nanoparticles significantly improved the physical and chemical hydrogel properties as well as some biological characteristics such as osteoblast cell adhesion. Further development of these elastomeric materials can potentially lead to use as a matrix for drug delivery and tissue repair especially for orthopedic applications.     

Pre-PCR processing

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is recognized as a rapid, sensitive, and specific molecular diagnostic tool for the analysis of nucleic acids. However, the sensitivity and kinetics of diagnostic PCR may be dramatically reduced when applied directly to biological samples, such as blood and feces, owing to PCR-inhibitory components. As a result, pre-PCR processing procedures have been developed to remove or reduce the effects of PCR inhibitors. Pre-PCR processing comprises all steps prior to the detection of PCR products, that is, sampling, sample preparation, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification. The aim of pre-PCR processing is to convert a complex biological sample with its target nucleic acids/cells into PCR-amplifiable samples by combining sample preparation and amplification conditions. Several different pre-PCR processing strategies are used: (1) optimization of the DNA amplification conditions by the use of alternative DNA polymerases and/or amplification facilitators, (2) optimization of the sample preparation method, (3) optimization of the sampling method, and (4) combinations of the different strategies. This review describes different pre-PCR processing strategies to circumvent PCR inhibition to allow accurate and precise DNA amplification.     

Hydrogel‐based three‐dimensional cell culture for organ‐on‐a‐chip applications

Recent studies have reported that three‐dimensionally cultured cells have more physiologically relevant functions than two‐dimensionally cultured cells. Cells are three‐dimensionally surrounded by the extracellular matrix (ECM) in complex in vivo microenvironments and interact with the ECM and neighboring cells. Therefore, replicating the ECM environment is key to the successful cell culture models. Various natural and synthetic hydrogels have been used to mimic ECM environments based on their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and biochemical functional groups. Because of these characteristics, hydrogels have been combined with microtechnologies and used in organ‐on‐a‐chip applications to more closely recapitulate the in vivo microenvironment. Therefore, appropriate hydrogels should be selected depending on the cell types and applications. The porosity of the selected hydrogel should be controlled to facilitate the movement of nutrients and oxygen. In this review, we describe various types of hydrogels, external stimulation‐based gelation of hydrogels, and control of their porosity. Then, we introduce applications of hydrogels for organ‐on‐a‐chip. Last, we also discuss the challenges of hydrogel‐based three‐dimensional cell culture techniques and propose future directions. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:580–589, 2017     

环介导等温扩增技术的应用进展

环介导等温扩增(loop-mediated isothermal amplification,LAMP)是一种新式核酸扩增技术,它依靠一种具有链置换活性的DNA聚合酶与2对特殊设计的引物,在等温条件下即可高效快速地完成扩增反应。相较于传统扩增检测方法,LAMP技术具有特异性强、灵敏度高、操作简单快速等优点,更能在现场快速检测和基层应用中广泛推广,目前LAMP技术已广泛应用于植物病害检测、动物病害检测、食品安全检测等领域。基于此,简要介绍了LAMP技术的基本原理、反应产物的检测方法,重点阐述了LAMP技术的改进与发展,综述了近年来其在科研生产中的应用进展,并对其发展前景进行了展望,以期为LAMP技术的进一步发展提供合理的研究方向。     

Self-assembling chimeric protein for the construction of biodegradable hydrogels capable of interaction with integrins expressed on neural stem/progenitor cells

The poor survival of neural stem/progenitor cells following transplantation into the brain is the major problem limiting the effect of cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease. To overcome this problem, we are involved in designing keratin-based hydrogels that serve as physical barriers to prevent the infiltration of inflammatory cells. Another feature of the hydrogels is to contain a polypeptide that promotes integrin-mediated cell adhesion. To construct such hydrogels, a chimeric protein consisting of an alpha-helical polypeptide and a globular domain derived from laminin was synthesized by means of recombinant DNA technology and coassembled with extracted keratins that form hydrogels through intermolecular coiled-coil association of alpha-helical segments. It was found that neurosphere-forming cells specifically adhered to the keratin-based composite hydrogel and actively proliferated at a high survival rate. These results suggested that the composite hydrogel provides microenvironments suitable for the survival and proliferation of neural progenitor cells.     

基于天然水凝胶的生物材料在骨组织工程中的应用*

天然水凝胶是指原材料来自于天然生物材料的水凝胶。由于这种天然的聚合物含有构成生物体的天然成分,与天然组织具有生物学和化学相似性,而受到特别关注。天然水凝胶由于其与细胞外基质高度的相似性被认为是骨组织工程中优良的仿生基质材料。而针对天然水凝胶机械性能差、成骨诱导性能弱等缺陷,通常需要对天然水凝胶进行改性、引入其他材料或生物活性因子,以此来获得更适用于骨组织工程支架材料。对近年来基于天然水凝胶的生物材料在骨组织工程的应用,与其不同的应用形式(可注射水凝胶、多孔水凝胶支架、3D生物打印水凝胶支架等)进行了概述,以期对这类基于天然水凝胶的生物材料在未来骨组织工程中的应用提供参考。     

Detection of DNA Sequences Refractory to PCR Amplification Using a Biophysical SERRS Assay (Surface Enhanced Resonant Raman Spectroscopy)

The analysis of ancient or processed DNA samples is often a great challenge, because traditional Polymerase Chain Reaction – based amplification is impeded by DNA damage. Blocking lesions such as abasic sites are known to block the bypass of DNA polymerases, thus stopping primer elongation. In the present work, we applied the SERRS-hybridization assay, a fully non-enzymatic method, to the detection of DNA refractory to PCR amplification. This method combines specific hybridization with detection by Surface Enhanced Resonant Raman Scattering (SERRS). It allows the detection of a series of double-stranded DNA molecules containing a varying number of abasic sites on both strands, when PCR failed to detect the most degraded sequences. Our SERRS approach can quickly detect DNA molecules without any need for DNA repair. This assay could be applied as a pre-requisite analysis prior to enzymatic reparation or amplification. A whole new set of samples, both forensic and archaeological, could then deliver information that was not yet available due to a high degree of DNA damage.