MXene-based aptasensor for the detection of aflatoxin in food and agricultural products.

The detection of toxins that contaminate food needs highly sensitive and selective techniques to prevent substantial monitory loss. In this regard, various nanostructured material-enabled biosensors, have recently been developed to improve the detection of food toxins among them aflatoxin is the prevalent one. The biosensor-based detection of aflatoxin is quick, cheaper, and needs less skilled personnel, therefore overcoming the shortcomings of conventional techniques such as LC/MS-MS, HPLC, and ELISA assays.

Electrochemical Immunosensor for Early Detection of β-Amyloid Alzheimer's Disease Biomarker Based on Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Gold Nanocomposites.

Beta-amyloid (βA) peptides accompanying the physiological change in brain induce Alzheimer's disease. In this work, a highly sensitive electrochemical (EC) immunosensor platform has been developed for the quantitative detection of βA peptides, using the gold nanoparticle functionalized chitosan-aligned carbon nanotube (CS-aCNT-Au) nanocomposites on glassy carbon electrodes (GCE). The immunosensor has been fabricated by immobilization of the anti-βA antibody upon CS-aCNT-Au/GCE.

Biosensors based detection of novel biomarkers associated with COVID-19: Current progress and future promise.

The pandemic situation of COVID-19 has caused global alarm in health care, devastating loss of lives, strangled economy, and paralysis of normal livelihood. The high inter-individual transmission rate created havoc in the global community. Although tremendous efforts are pitching in from across the globe to understand this disease, the clinical features seemed to have a wide range including fever, cough, and fatigue are the prominent features.

Functionalized Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle-Based Electrochemical Immunosensor for Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody.

The advancement in biosensors can overcome the challenges faced by conventional diagnostic techniques for the detection of the highly infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hence, the development of an accurate, rapid, sensitive, and selective diagnostic technique can mitigate adverse health conditions caused by SARS-CoV-2. This work proposes the development of an electrochemical immunosensor based on bio-nanocomposites for the sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies through the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) electroanalytical method.

Electrochemically Exfoliated Graphene Quantum Dots Based Biosensor for CD44 Breast Cancer Biomarker.

An innovative electrochemical biosensor based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) is developed for a simple, rapid, and highly sensitive primary diagnosis of the breast cancer biomarker cluster of differentiation-44 (CD44) antigen. Herein, electrochemical exfoliation of waste dry batteries provides facile, eco-friendly, and cost-effective synthesis of GQDs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis reveals that GQDs exhibit spherical shapes with an average diameter of 4.

Extremely Reduced Dielectric Constant and Band Gap Enhancement in Few-Layered Tungsten Disulfide Nanosheets.

Highly crystalline few-layered tungsten disulfide (WS) nanosheets were synthesized via a cost-effective, low-temperature hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction and HR-TEM analysis confirmed the formation of hexagonal nanosheets with thickness of ∼6-8 nm. Raman analysis and AFM results confirmed the few-layered 2H phase of WS nanosheets.

Polydopamine decorated MoS nanosheet based electrochemical immunosensor for sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in clinical samples.

The outbreak of the highly contagious disease COVID-19, which is triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), demands a rapid, low-cost, and highly sensitive immunosensor that can detect and identify the virus efficiently. Here, an electrochemical immunosensor based on a nanocomposite consisting of molybdenum disulfide nanosheets decorated with polydopamine (MoS-PDA) is developed for highly sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (N protein). The MoS-PDA nanocomposite possesses various hydroxyl and amine groups that have excellent chemistry with crosslinkers and act as adhesive agents to bind with the working electrode surface.

Facile synthesized zinc oxide nanorod film humidity sensor based on variation in optical transmissivity.

Variation in the transmitted light intensity from metal oxide thin films with moisture content provides a great opportunity to use them for humidity sensing. Herein, we have developed a novel and simple humidity sensor based on ZnO nanorod (ZNR) thin films which work as transmission-based sensing elements in an in-house fabricated sensing setup. The ZNR sensing element shows excellent linear sensing performance in the relative humidity (RH) range 10-90% and does not show any hysteresis.

Patterning at the Resolution Limit of Commercial Electron Beam Lithography.

It has been long known that low molecular weight resists can achieve a very high resolution, theoretically close to the probe diameter of the electron beam lithography (EBL) system. Despite technological improvements in EBL systems, the advances in resists have lagged behind. Here we demonstrate that a low-molecular-mass single-source precursor resist (based on cadmium(II) ethylxanthate complexed with pyridine) is capable of a achieving resolution (4 nm) that closely matches the measured probe diameter (∼3.

Unusual nanoscale piezoelectricity-driven high current generation from a self S-defect-neutralised few-layered MoS nanosheet-based flexible nanogenerator.

We report the fabrication of a high-performance flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator based on S-defect-neutralised few-layered molybdenum disulphide (MoS) nanosheets. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the number of stacked layers in the MoS sheets to be 3-5. The defect, electronic and chemical states of the as-grown MoS nanosheets were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Recent advances in copper and copper-derived materials for antimicrobial resistance and infection control.

Antibacterial properties of copper have been known for ages. With the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), hospital-acquired infections, and the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, copper and copper-derived materials are being widely researched for healthcare ranging from therapeutics to advanced wound dressing to medical devices. We cover current research that highlights the potential uses of metallic and ionic copper, copper alloys, copper nanostructures, and copper composites as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agents, including those against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

MXene-modified molecularly imprinted polymers as an artificial bio-recognition platform for efficient electrochemical sensing: progress and perspectives.

The development of efficient electrochemical sensors of exceptional features, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), has been extensively utilized due to their great vitality as an alternative to bio-recognition elements. MIPs as an artificial bio-recognition element are getting significant attention due to their affordability, easy processability, and scaling-up capabilities. However, the challenge of longer stability and higher sensitivity associated with MIP-based sensing technology is still a remaining challenge.

Carbon nanomaterials for the detection of pesticide residues in food: A review.

In agricultural fields, pesticides are widely used, but their residual presence in the environment poses a threat to humans, animals, insects, and ecosystems. The overuse of pesticides for pest control, enhancement of crop yield, etc. leaves behind a significant residual amount in the environment.

3D printed human organoids: High throughput system for drug screening and testing in current COVID-19 pandemic.

In the current pandemic, scenario the world is facing a huge shortage of effective drugs and other prophylactic medicine to treat patients which created havoc in several countries with poor resources. With limited demand and supply of effective drugs, researchers rushed to repurpose the existing approved drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. The process of drug screening and testing is very costly and requires several steps for validation and treatment efficacy evaluation ranging from in-vitro to in-vivo setups.

Recent progress on elemental sulfur based photocatalysts for energy and environmental applications.

The growing needs of the rising population and blatant misuse of resources have contributed enormously to environmental problems. Among the various methods, photocatalysis has emerged as one of the effective remediation methods. The continuous search for effective photocatalysts that can be made from abundant, cheap, non-toxic materials is going on.

Structural alterations in cell organelles induced by photodynamic treatment with chlorin p -histamine conjugate in human oral carcinoma cells probed by 3D fluorescence microscopy.

We have explored the intracellular cell organelle's structural alterations after photodynamic treatment with chlorin p -histamine conjugate (Cp -his) in human oral cancer cells. Herein, the cells were treated with Cp -his (10 μm) and counterstained with organelle-specific fluorescence probes to find the site of intracellular localization using confocal microscopy. For photodynamic therapy (PDT), the cells were exposed to ~30 kJ/m red light (660 ± 20 nm) to induce ~90% cytotoxicity.

Advances in Nanoarchitectonics of Antimicrobial Tiles and a Quest for Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Tiles.

Design of antimicrobial tiles seems necessary to combat against contagious diseases, especially COVID-19. In addition to personal hygiene, this technology facilitates public hygiene as antimicrobial tiles can be installed at hospitals, schools, banks, offices, lobbies, railway stations, etc. This review is primarily focused on preparing antimicrobial tiles using an antimicrobial layer or coatings that fight against germs.

Computational studies on potential new anti-Covid-19 agents with a multi-target mode of action.

A compound that could inhibit multiple targets associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection would prove to be a drug of choice against the virus. Human receptor-ACE2, receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, Papain-like protein of SARS-CoV-2 (PLpro), reverse transcriptase of SARS-CoV-2 (RdRp) were chosen for in silico study. A set of previously synthesized compounds (-) were docked into the active sites of the targets.

Highly Sensitive Electrochemical Immunosensor Platforms for Dual Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antigen and Antibody based on Gold Nanoparticle Functionalized Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites.

In this work, we report a facile synthesis of graphene oxide-gold (GO-Au) nanocomposites by electrodeposition. The fabricated electrochemical immunosensors are utilized for the dual detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen and SARS-CoV-2 antibody. The GO-Au nanocomposites has been characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for its biosensing properties.

A machine learning-based approach to determine infection status in recipients of BBV152 (Covaxin) whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for serological surveys.

Data science has been an invaluable part of the COVID-19 pandemic response with multiple applications, ranging from tracking viral evolution to understanding the vaccine effectiveness. Asymptomatic breakthrough infections have been a major problem in assessing vaccine effectiveness in populations globally. Serological discrimination of vaccine response from infection has so far been limited to Spike protein vaccines since whole virion vaccines generate antibodies against all the viral proteins.

An Electrochemical Immunosensor Based on Gold-Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites with Ionic Liquid for Detecting the Breast Cancer CD44 Biomarker.

We develop a highly sensitive electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of a cluster of differentiation-44 (CD44) antigen, a breast cancer biomarker. The hybrid nanocomposite consists of graphene oxide, ionic liquid, and gold nanoparticles (GO-IL-AuNPs) immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode. GO favors the immobilization of antibodies because of the availability of oxygen functionalities.