Carbon “quantum” dots for bioapplications

Carbon “quantum” dots or carbon dots (CDots) exploit and enhance the intrinsic photoexcited state properties and processes of small carbon nanoparticles via effective nanoparticle surface passivation by chemical functionalization with organic species. The optical properties and photoinduced redox characteristics of CDots are competitive to those of established conventional semiconductor quantum dots and also fullerenes and other carbon nanomaterials. Highlighted here are major advances in the exploration of CDots for their serving as high-performance yet nontoxic fluorescence probes for one- and multi-photon bioimaging in vitro and in vivo, and for their uniquely potent antimicrobial function to inactivate effectively and efficiently some of the toughest bacterial pathogens and viruses under visible/natural or ambient light conditions. Opportunities and challenges in the further development of the CDots platform and related technologies are discussed.     

Effect of constituting amino acid residue numbers on molecularly imprinted chiral recognition sites

In the present study, the effect of constituting amino acid residue numbers of oligopeptide derivatives, which are candidate materials to construct molecular recognition sites, on chiral recognition ability was investigated. Chiral recognition sites were formed from oligopeptide derivatives, of which constituting amino acid residue numbers were three to six, by adopting an alternative molecular imprinting. It was made clear that the number four, in other words, the tetrapeptide derivative, is the best candidate material to form a chiral recognition site.     

离体培养细胞系冷休克敏感差异性的研究

应用台盼蓝活体染色方法、Hoechst332 5 8荧光探针技术研究低温冷休克 (4℃ )对人肝癌细胞系 (74 0 2 )、秋行军虫细胞系 (Sf9)、幼蚊细胞系 (C6 36 )及草鱼肾细胞系 (CIK)的影响。结果显示 :在冷休克处理 6天后 ,Sf9、C6 36、CIK、74 0 2细胞系的死亡率分别是 2 0 .0 3%、10 0 %、2 8.6 9%、10 0 % ;凋亡率分别为 2 .4 5 %、38.38%、8.2 5 %、96 .4 7% ,其细胞的死亡率远远大于凋亡率。可见冷休克导致细胞死亡过程中 ,应是细胞坏死和凋亡并存。但就其细胞凋亡的敏感性而言 ,4种细胞顺序应为 74 0 2 >C6 36 >CIK >Sf9。研究结果为在细胞水平、分子水平深入研究低体温生物离体细胞冷休克机理奠定基础。     

F0F1-ATPase分子马达技术对单核细胞增生李斯特菌检测的研究

利用载色体chromatophore上的F₀F₁-ATPase分子马达生物传感器,建立了应用在食品检测中快速检测方法。首先从嗜热菌中提取载色体后,标记荧光探针F-DHPE,合成生物素化单增李氏菌prfA探针,在已标记F-DHPE的载色体ATP合酶的ε亚基上连接ε亚基抗体-生物素-链霉亲和素-生物素-prfA探针,将待测单核细胞增生李斯特菌标准菌株和阴性对照分别与此生物传感器结合,通过环境H+量测定ATP产生量,进而对单核细胞增生李斯特菌DNA进行检测。结果表明,chro prfA(连接在载色体chro上的prfA探针)的浓度在0.052 mg/mL,单核细胞增生李斯特菌DNA浓度在40 ng/mL为最适检测条件。通过传统检测方法及PCR检测方法对照,本方法具有良好的检测符合性。     

Terahertz Microfluidic Sensing Using a Parallel-plate Waveguide Sensor

Refractive index (RI) sensing is a powerful noninvasive and label-free sensing technique for the identification, detection and monitoring of microfluidic samples with a wide range of possible sensor designs such as interferometers and resonators ^1,2. Most of the existing RI sensing applications focus on biological materials in aqueous solutions in visible and IR frequencies, such as DNA hybridization and genome sequencing. At terahertz frequencies, applications include quality control, monitoring of industrial processes and sensing and detection applications involving nonpolar materials.Several potential designs for refractive index sensors in the terahertz regime exist, including photonic crystal waveguides ³, asymmetric split-ring resonators ⁴, and photonic band gap structures integrated into parallel-plate waveguides ⁵. Many of these designs are based on optical resonators such as rings or cavities. The resonant frequencies of these structures are dependent on the refractive index of the material in or around the resonator. By monitoring the shifts in resonant frequency the refractive index of a sample can be accurately measured and this in turn can be used to identify a material, monitor contamination or dilution, etc.The sensor design we use here is based on a simple parallel-plate waveguide ^6,7. A rectangular groove machined into one face acts as a resonant cavity (Figures 1 and 2). When terahertz radiation is coupled into the waveguide and propagates in the lowest-order transverse-electric (TE₁) mode, the result is a single strong resonant feature with a tunable resonant frequency that is dependent on the geometry of the groove ^6,8. This groove can be filled with nonpolar liquid microfluidic samples which cause a shift in the observed resonant frequency that depends on the amount of liquid in the groove and its refractive index ⁹.Our technique has an advantage over other terahertz techniques in its simplicity, both in fabrication and implementation, since the procedure can be accomplished with standard laboratory equipment without the need for a clean room or any special fabrication or experimental techniques. It can also be easily expanded to multichannel operation by the incorporation of multiple grooves ¹⁰. In this video we will describe our complete experimental procedure, from the design of the sensor to the data analysis and determination of the sample refractive index.     

Environmental factors influencing the distribution of rRNA from Verrucomicrobia in soil

The Verrucomicrobia constitute a newly discovered division of the Bacteria identified as a numerically abundant component of soil microbial communities in numerous sites around the world. The relative abundance of rRNA from Verrucomicrobia was investigated in the soil to examine the influence of specific environmental factors on the distribution of Verrucomicrobia and to better understand the distribution of this group in terrestrial ecosystems. The abundance of the verrucomicrobial rRNA was determined by using a novel oligonucleotide probe that is specific for verrucomicrobial 16S rRNA. The abundance of verrucomicrobial 16S rRNA in soil microbial communities was determined in relation to plant community composition and soil management history over a period of 2 years. Additional samples were analyzed to determine if verrucomicrobial rRNA relative abundance changes in relation to either soil depth or soil moisture content. The Verrucomicrobia composed 1.9+/-0.2% of the microbial community rRNA present in the 85 soil samples examined. The distribution of verrucomicrobial rRNA in the soil reveals that Verrucomicrobia are significantly affected by environmental characteristics that change in relation to time, soil history, and soil depth, and reveals that a statistically significant amount of the variation in verrucomicrobial rRNA abundance can be explained by changes in soil moisture content.     

X-ray microanalysis of etoposide-induced apoptosis in the PC-3 prostatic cancer cell line.

Apoptosis comprises a critical intracellular defense mechanism against tumourigenic growth. We have been interested in the relationship between morphological changes and intracellular concentration of several cations after etoposide-induced apoptosis in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells. SEM and X-ray microanalysis were performed on freeze-dried PC3 cells after etoposide treatment, and correlated with the morphological features observed after examination by light and fluorescence microscopy. Cell viability assays were also performed. A significant decrease in intracellular Cl(-) and K(+)and a progressive increase in Mg(2+) and Na(+) were observed, with parallel changes in cellular volume as cells passed through three morphological stages of apoptosis. The use of EPXRMA made it possible to evaluate alterations in element composition in prostate cancer cell apoptosis and may be a helpful tool for further studies on apoptosis in prostate cancer.     

Genome characterization of glucose-isomerase-producingStreptomyces sp. NCIM 2730: detection of sequences homologous to a rice repeat sequence

Restriction analysis of the genomic DNA from a high glucose/xylose-isomerase-yieldingStreptomyces sp. NCIM 2730 revealed a number of distinct bands on a background smear, indicating the occurrence of repeated DNA sequences in the genome. Optical renaturation analysis indicated that 25% of the genome comprised rapidly reannealing sequences with a copy number of 50 and a kinetic complexity of 3×10³. Hybridization of theStreptomyces genomic library with theStreptomyces DNA, supported the estimate of the repetitive DNA content derived from the re-association kinetics of the DNA. Hybridization of DNA from three differentStreptomyces species with a rice repetitive DNA probe revealed the presence of homologous sequences, which is a unique finding.M.S. Ghatge was and V.V. Deshpande and P.K. Ranjekar are with the Division of Biochemical Sciences, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune -41108, India; M.S. Ghatge is now with the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology, The University of Kansas Medical Center, 36th and Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, Kansas - 66103, USA.     

Deep Learning Using Havrda-Charvat Entropy for Classification of Pulmonary Optical Endomicroscopy

1) ObjectivePulmonary optical endomicroscopy (POE) is an imaging technology in real time. It allows to examine pulmonary alveoli at a microscopic level. Acquired in clinical settings, a POE image sequence can have as much as 25% of the sequence being uninformative frames (i.e. pure-noise and motion artifacts). For future data analysis, these uninformative frames must be first removed from the sequence. Therefore, the objective of our work is to develop an automatic detection method of uninformative images in endomicroscopy images.2) Material and methodsWe propose to take the detection problem as a classification one. Considering advantages of deep learning methods, a classifier based on CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) is designed with a new loss function based on Havrda-Charvat entropy which is a parametrical generalization of the Shannon entropy. We propose to use this formula to get a better hold on all sorts of data since it provides a model more stable than the Shannon entropy.3) ResultsOur method is tested on one POE dataset including 3895 distinct images and is showing better results than using Shannon entropy and behaves better with regard to the problem of overfitting. We obtain 70% of accuracy with Shannon entropy versus 77 to 79% with Havrda-Charvat.4) ConclusionWe can conclude that Havrda-Charvat entropy is better suited for restricted and or noisy datasets due to its generalized nature. It is also more suitable for classification in endomicroscopy datasets.