Southwest University

About: Southwest University is a education organization based out in Chongqing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Population. The organization has 29772 authors who have published 27755 publications receiving 409441 citations. The organization is also known as: Southwest University in Chongqing & SWU.

Advances of lab-on-a-chip in isolation, detection and post-processing of circulating tumour cells

Abstract: Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are shed by primary tumours and are found in the peripheral blood of patients with metastatic cancers. Recent studies have shown that the number of CTCs corresponds with disease severity and prognosis. Therefore, detection and further functional analysis of CTCs are important for biomedical science, early diagnosis of cancer metastasis and tracking treatment efficacy in cancer patients, especially in point-of-care applications. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing shift towards not only capturing and detecting these rare cells, but also ensuring their viability for post-processing, such as cell culture and genetic analysis. High throughput lab-on-a-chip (LOC) has been fuelled up to process and analyse heterogeneous real patient samples while gaining profound insights for cancer biology. In this review, we highlight how miniaturisation strategies together with nanotechnologies have been used to advance LOC for capturing, separating, enriching and detecting different CTCs efficiently, while meeting the challenges of cell viability, high throughput multiplex or single-cell detection and post-processing. We begin this survey with an introduction to CTC biology, followed by description of the use of various materials, microstructures and nanostructures for design of LOC to achieve miniaturisation, as well as how various CTC capture or separation strategies can enhance cell capture and enrichment efficiencies, purity and viability. The significant progress of various nanotechnologies-based detection techniques to achieve high sensitivities and low detection limits for viable CTCs and/or to enable CTC post-processing are presented and the fundamental insights are also discussed. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of the technologies are enumerated.

Electrochemiluminescence Biosensor Based on 3-D DNA Nanomachine Signal Probe Powered by Protein-Aptamer Binding Complex for Ultrasensitive Mucin 1 Detection

Abstract: Herein, we fabricated a novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of mucin 1 (MUC1) based on a three-dimensional (3-D) DNA nanomachine signal probe powered by protein-aptamer binding complex. The assembly of 3-D DNA nanomachine signal probe achieved the cyclic reuse of target protein based on the protein-aptamer binding complex induced catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA), which overcame the shortcoming of protein conversion with enzyme cleavage or polymerization in the traditional examination of protein. In addition, CoFe2O4, a mimic peroxidase, was used as the nanocarrier of the 3-D DNA nanomachine signal probe to catalyze the decomposition of coreactant H2O2 to generate numerous reactive hydroxyl radical OH• as the efficient accelerator of N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI) ECL reaction to amplify the luminescence signal. Simultaneously, the assembly of 3-D DNA nanomachine signal probe was executed in solution, which led to abundant luminophore ABEI be immobilized a...

A Co,N co-doped hierarchically porous carbon hybrid as a highly efficient oxidase mimetic for glutathione detection

Abstract: The past few years have witnessed rapid development of nanozymes in various fields. However, analytical applications of oxidase nanozymes are limited. Here, a novel oxidase nanozyme was fabricated by one-pot pyrolysis of ZIF-67. Benefiting from self-template synthesis and a nitrogen-rich precursor, the resulting product is a highly N-doped hierarchically porous carbon with well-dispersed Co nanoparticles. It shows a typical oxidase mimicking property to efficiently catalyze oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), 1,2-diaminobenzene, and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt by oxygen to produce a color reaction without the need for H2O2. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) measurements indicate that 1O2 and O2 − radicals are the main ROSs in the TMB–Co,N co-doped hierarchically porous carbon (Co,N-HPC) system. The high surface area and hierarchical pores of Co,N-HPC facilitate rapid diffusion of dissolved oxygen to the catalytic active sites, resulting in the novel and efficient oxidase nanozyme characteristic of Co,N-HPC. On account of the inhibiting effect of glutathione on TMB oxidation, a rapid and highly sensitive colorimetric assay is proposed for its detection. This assay has a linear concentration range from 0.05 to 30 μM and a limit of detection of 36 nM (3σ). The proposed method was successfully applied to glutathione quantification in biological samples.

A review on pyrophosphate framework cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract: Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been considered as an attractive and promising alternative for energy storage applications due to their advantages of abundant resources, low cost and relatively high safety. However, the low electrochemical kinetics of sodium-ion batteries is a major issue limiting their large-scale application. One of the main strategies to address this shortcoming is to find or develop novel cathode materials, which has encouraged a large number of materials chemists to design and develop a variety of polyanionic compounds. Herein, the latest research progress of pyrophosphates as cathode materials for SIBs is reviewed. It is pointed out that pyrophosphate-based cathode materials have abundant crystal chemistry, are easy to synthesize and have a stable structure. The remaining challenges and opportunities of these systems are also discussed and provided. This review will provide better guidance on pyrophosphate electrode materials used in advanced rechargeable batteries.

Polymer-Mediated Self-Assembly of TiO2@Cu2O Core–Shell Nanowire Array for Highly Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Abstract: Phototoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting represents a highly promising strategy to convert solar energy to chemical energy in the form of hydrogen, but its performance is severely limited by the water oxidation reaction. We conformally grew an ultrathin and continuous coating of Cu2O on TiO2 nanowire array (NWA) to form a truly core–shell TiO2@Cu2O NWA via a new facile, economical, and scalable polymer-mediated self-assembly approach, in which the polymer serves as a stabilizer, reductant, and linker simultaneously. This heteronanostructure was subsequently directly used as a photoanode for PEC water splitting, showing a photocurrent density of 4.66 mA cm–2 at 1.23 V vs RHE in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution and a maximum photoconversion efficiency of 0.71%, both of which are the highest reported for TiO2-based photoanodes measured under the same conditions (neutral conditions and without any sacrificial agent). The superior PEC performance of the TiO2@Cu2O NWA toward water oxidation is primarily due to much en...