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This paper proposes a novel handheld analyzer with disposable lab-on-a-chip technology for the electrical detection of the anesthetic propofol in human plasma samples for clinical diagnoses. The developed on-chip biosensors are based on the conduction of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) that employ label-free electrical detection techniques. Propofol in total intravenous anesthesia is widely used with a target-controlled infusion system. At present, the methods employed for detecting blood propofol concentrations in hospitals comprise high-performance liquid chromatography and ion mobility spectrometry. These conventional instruments are bulky, expensive, and difficult to access. In this study, we developed a novel plastic microfluidic biochip with an on-chip anesthetic biosensor that was characterized for the rapid detection of propofol concentrations. The experimental results revealed that the response time of the developed propofol biosensors was 25 s. The specific binding of an MIP to a nonimprinted polymer (NIP) reached up to 560%. Moreover, the detection limit of the biosensors was 0.1 μg/mL, with a linear detection range of 0.1–30 μg/mL. The proposed disposable microfluidic biochip with an on-chip anesthetic biosensor using MIPs exhibited excellent performance in the separation and sensing of propofol molecules in the human plasma samples. Compared with large-scale conventional instruments, the developed microfluidic biochips with on-chip MIP biosensors present the advantages of a compact size, high selectivity, low cost, rapid response, and single-step detection.

This paper presents a disposable microfluidic biochip with on-chip molecularly imprinted biosensors for optical detection of anesthetic propofol. So far, the methods to detect anesthetic propofol in hospitals are liquid chromatography (LC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS). These conventional instruments are bulky, expensive, and not ease of access. In this work, a novel plastic microfluidic biochip with on-chip anesthetic biosensor has been developed and characterized for rapid detection of anesthetic propofol. The template-molecule imprinted polymers were integrated into microfluidic biochips to be used for detecting anesthetic propofol optically at 655 nm wavelength after the reaction of propofol with color reagent. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of the microfluidic biochip with on-chip molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) biosensor is 6.47 mV/(ppm mm2). The specific binding of MIP to non-imprinted polymer (NIP) is up to 456%. And the detection limit of the microsystem is 0.25 ppm with a linear detection range from 0.25 to 10 ppm. The disposable microfluidic biochip with on-chip anesthetic biosensor using molecularly imprinted polymers presented in this work showed excellent performance in separation and sensing of anesthetic propofol molecules. While compared to large-scale conventional instruments, the developed microfluidic biochips with on-chip MIP biosensors have the advantages of compact size, high sensitivity, high selectivity, low cost, and fast response.

This study investigated the effect of baicalein, silymarin, and their combination, on two human liver-derived cell lines, HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma) and Chang liver (non-tumor liver cells). It was found that 6.75 microg/ml baicalein or 100 microg/ml silymarin alone significantly inhibited the growth of HepG2. When baicalein was used in combination with silymarin on HepG2, an additive effect at 24 h and a synergistic effect at 48 h were observed. The viability at 48 h was 85.62% from 6.75 microg/ml baicalein treatment; but the viability reduced to 49.67%, 38.56%, and 19.61% when 25, 50, and 100 microg/ml silymarin respectively, was added to the treatment. By contrast, each treatment had little or no effect on Chang liver. Compared to treatment of baicalein or silymarin alone on HepG2, combination of both drugs synergistically increased the percentages of cells in G0/G1 phase and decreased those in S-phase, which were associated with up-regulation of Rb, p53, p21(Cip1) and p27(Kip1) and down-regulation of cyclin D1, cyclin E, CDK4 and phospho-Rb. The results indicate that the combination of baicalein and silymarin eradicates tumor cells efficiently, has minimal deleterious effects to the surrounding normal cells, and offers mechanistic insight for further exploitation of HCC treatment.