Plasmon-Enhanced Luminescence of Gold Nanoclusters by Using Silver and Gold Metal Nanostructures.

Plasmonic materials can be utilized as effective platforms to enhance luminescent signals of luminescent metal nanoclusters (LMNCs). Both surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF) and shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced fluorescence (SHINEF) strategies take advantage of the localized and increased external electric field created around the plasmonic metal surface when excited at or near their characteristic plasmonic resonance. In this context, we present an experimental and computational study of different plasmonic composites, (Ag) Ag@SiO2 and (Au) Au@SiO2 nanoparticles, which were used to enhance the luminescent signal of Au nanoclusters coated with glutathione (GSH) molecule (Au25GSH NCs).

On the Role of a Polymer Matrix in Enhancing Energy Transfer Efficiency Using Coumarin 6 and Rhodamine B as Donor and Acceptor Pairs.

This study investigates the critical role of polymer matrices in optimizing luminescence and energy transfer, utilizing the commercial dyes Coumarin 6 (C6) and Rhodamine B (RhB) as a donor-acceptor pair. Solution-phase experiments revealed a dependence of energy transfer efficiency on solvent dielectric constant. Furthermore, embedding the dyes within Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or Poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) matrices significantly enhance energy transfer due to increased molecular proximity.

The double-edged role of FASII regulator FabT in Streptococcus pyogenes infection.

In Streptococcus pyogenes, the type II fatty acid (FA) synthesis pathway FASII is feedback-controlled by the FabT repressor bound to an acyl-Acyl carrier protein. Although FabT defects confer reduced virulence in animal models, spontaneous fabT mutants arise in vivo. We resolved this paradox by characterizing the conditions and mechanisms requiring FabT activity, and those promoting fabT mutant emergence.