Screen-Printed Sensors Modified with Nafion and Mesoporous Carbon for Electrochemical Detection of Lead in Blood.

Lead (Pb) has long been acknowledged as a systemic toxicant, with pronounced health impacts observed even at low exposure levels, particularly in children. Adverse effects include diminished cognitive function, altered behavior, and developmental delays. Consequently, it is imperative to conduct regular monitoring of Blood Lead Levels (BLLs).

Determination of Mercury with a Miniature Sensor for Point-of-care Testing.

In developing countries, subsistence gold mining entails mixing metallic mercury with crushed sediments to extract gold. In this approach, the gold-mercury amalgam is heated to evaporate mercury and obtain gold. Thus, the highly volatile mercury can be absorbed through inhalation, resulting in adverse health effects.

Automatic Microtitrator for Small Volume Samples.

Electroanalytical sensors for point-of-care biomedical or point-of-use environmental sample analysis are gaining popularity due to low limits of detection, ease of miniaturization, convenience, and ability to work with small sample volumes. Since pH must be tightly controlled for optimum electrochemical performance, adjustment of pH in these samples is often a necessity. Yet manual titration is time-consuming and can be especially challenging for small volumes.

Electrochemical Determination of Manganese in Whole Blood with Indium Tin Oxide Electrode.

In this work, we demonstrate accurate and precise measurement of manganese (Mn) concentration in human whole blood with indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode using square wave stripping voltammetry. While an essential trace metal for human health, elevated levels of Mn due to environmental or occupational exposure have been associated with severe neuromotor dysfunction characterized by parkinsonism and cognitive dysfunction making the monitoring of Mn in whole blood necessary. Pediatric populations are particularly susceptible to Mn given their developing brain and potential long-term impacts on neurodevelopment.

Validation of Electrochemical Sensor for Determination of Manganese in Drinking Water.

Manganese (Mn) is an essential nutrient for metabolic functions, yet excessive exposure can lead to neurological disease in adults and neurodevelopmental deficits in children. Drinking water represents one of the routes of excessive Mn exposure. Both natural enrichment from rocks and soil, and man-made contamination can pollute groundwater that supplies drinking water for a substantial fraction of the U.

One-Pot Synthesis of Dual-Responsive Hyperbranched Polymeric Prodrugs Using an All-in-One Chain Transfer Monomer.

Over the past decades, tremendous progress has been advanced in the preparation of hyperbranched polymers (HPs), especially for the one-pot synthesis of segmented HPs by using self-condensing vinyl polymerization based on controlled living radical polymerization techniques. However, the fabrication of hyperbranched polymeric prodrugs (HPPs) still requires multistep postpolymerization conjugations, which generally suffer from low and uncontrolled conjugation efficacy of drug molecules due to the steric hindrance, low yields because of multistep synthesis, and scale-up difficulties attributed to batch-to-batch variations. To further address these issues and provide a highly straightforward and robust strategy toward HPPs, we reported in this study the one-pot preparation of dual-responsive hyperbranched polymeric prodrugs (DRHPPs) using an all-in-one chain transfer monomer that integrates a drug molecule with both acidic pH- and reduction-sensitive links.

Peanut arachidin-1 enhances Nrf2-mediated protective mechanisms against TNF-α-induced ICAM-1 expression and NF-κB activation in endothelial cells.

Arachidin-1 [trans-4-(3-methyl-1-butenyl)-3,5,3',4'-tetrahydroxystilbene] is a polyphenol produced by peanut kernels during germination. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanism underlying the anti-inflammatory effect of arachidin-1 in endothelial cells (ECs). The results of cell adhesion and western blotting assays demonstrated that arachidin-1 attenuated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced monocyte/EC adhesion and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression.

Polysilicon based flexible temperature sensor for high spatial resolution brain temperature monitoring.

In this paper, we present a flexible temperature sensor with ultra-small polysilicon thermistors for brain temperature monitoring. In vitro sensitivity, resolution, thermal hysteresis and long term stability tests were performed. Temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of -0.

Lycopene inhibits ICAM-1 expression and NF-κB activation by Nrf2-regulated cell redox state in human retinal pigment epithelial cells.

Aims: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the most common diseases leading to blindness in elderly people. The progression of AMD may be prevented through anti-inflammation and antioxidation in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Lycopene, a carotenoid, has been shown to possess both antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties.

Development and application of a microfabricated multimodal neural catheter for neuroscience.

We present a microfabricated neural catheter for real-time continuous monitoring of multiple physiological, biochemical and electrophysiological variables that are critical to the diagnosis and treatment of evolving brain injury. The first generation neural catheter was realized by polyimide-based micromachining and a spiral rolling packaging method. The mechanical design and electrical operation of the microsensors were optimized and tailored for multimodal monitoring in rat brain such that the potential thermal, chemical and electrical crosstalk among the microsensors as well as errors from micro-environmental fluctuations are minimized.

Evaluation of microelectrode materials for direct-current electrocorticography.

Objective: Direct-current electrocorticography (DC-ECoG) allows a more complete characterization of brain states and pathologies than traditional alternating-current recordings (AC-ECoG). However, reliable recording of DC signals is challenging because of electrode polarization-induced potential drift, particularly at low frequencies and for more conducting materials. Further challenges arise as electrode size decreases, since impedance is increased and the potential drift is augmented.

Single probe for real-time simultaneous monitoring of neurochemistry and direct-current electrocorticography.

We report a novel single neural probe for real-time simultaneous monitoring of multiple neurochemicals and direct-current electrocorticography (DC-ECoG). A major advance of this probe is the inclusion of two iridium oxide reference electrodes to improve sensor accuracy. The ECoG reference electrode is identical to the ECoG recording electrodes to significantly improve DC stability, while the reference for electrochemical sensors has 10-fold lower polarization rate to minimize the small current-induced drift in the reference electrode potential.

Highly accurate thermal flow microsensor for continuous and quantitative measurement of cerebral blood flow.

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) plays a critical role in the exchange of nutrients and metabolites at the capillary level and is tightly regulated to meet the metabolic demands of the brain. After major brain injuries, CBF normally decreases and supporting the injured brain with adequate CBF is a mainstay of therapy after traumatic brain injury. Quantitative and localized measurement of CBF is therefore critically important for evaluation of treatment efficacy and also for understanding of cerebral pathophysiology.

[Regulatory effect of leonurus extracts on hyperuricemia in rats].

In this study, SD rats were orally administrated with oteracil potassium (300 mg . kg-1 . d-1 ) to prepare the hyperuricemia model, and divided into normal, model, Allopurinol, LE high dosage, middle dosage and low dose (200, 100, 50 mg .

Hypoglycemic activity evaluation and chemical study on hollyhock flowers.

Hollyhock (Althaea rosea (Linn.) Cavan) belongs to Althaea genus, Malvaceae family, is a perennial garden plant distributed throughout the world in warm temperate and tropical regions, which was used as anti-diabetes ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. In the process of our research, ethanolic extract of hollyhock flower (HFE) was found to decrease serum triglyceride and glucose levels significantly in KK-A(y) mice after oral administration for 8weeks.

Excretion of tectoridin metabolites in rat urine and bile orally administrated at different dosages and their inhibitory activity against aldose reductase.

This study investigated the urinary and biliary excretion of tectoridin, a major active isoflavonoid found in the flowers of Pueraria thomsonii Benth. and the rhizomes of Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC.

Acute and long-term toxicity of mango leaves extract in mice and rats.

The acute toxicity of mango leaves extract (MLE) at the maximal dose (18.4 g/kg) was studied in ICR mice and no abnormalities were detected during the experiment. The long-term studies at various doses of MLE (100 mg/kg, 300 mg/kg, and 900 mg/kg) in SD rats for 3 consecutive months revealed that, compared with the control group, rats in MLE treated groups showed slight body weight increase and higher fat weight; the serum TG and CHOL levels and the epididymis weight of male rats were a little higher; the serum K(+) level of female rats was on the low side but the weights of liver, kidney, and adrenal gland were on the high side.

Brain-friendly amperometric enzyme biosensor based on encapsulated oxygen generating biomaterial.

A novel first-generation Clark-type biosensor platform that can eliminate the oxygen dependence has been presented. Sufficient oxygen to drive the enzymatic reaction under hypoxic conditions was produced by encapsulated oxygen generating biomaterial, calcium peroxide. The catalase immobilized in chitosan matrix was coated on top of the groove to decompose residual hydrogen peroxide to oxygen.

Micromachined lab-on-a-tube sensors for simultaneous brain temperature and cerebral blood flow measurements.

This work describes the development of a micromachined lab-on-a-tube device for simultaneous measurement of brain temperature and regional cerebral blood flow. The device consists of two micromachined gold resistance temperature detectors with a 4-wire configuration. One is used as a temperature sensor and the other as a flow sensor.

Brain temperature measurement: A study of in vitro accuracy and stability of smart catheter temperature sensors.

The injured brain is vulnerable to increases in temperature after severe head injury. Therefore, accurate and reliable measurement of brain temperature is important to optimize patient outcome. In this work, we have fabricated, optimized and characterized temperature sensors for use with a micromachined smart catheter for multimodal intracranial monitoring.