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Artesunate (ARS) induced significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in HepG2, HeLa, and A549 lines. However, ARS induced ROS-dependent apoptosis in HeLa and A549 cell lines but ROS-independent apoptosis in HepG2 cells. A total of 200 μM hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) significantly induced cytotoxicity in HeLa cells, while H(2)O(2) up to 300 μM did not induce cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells, further demonstrating the strong resistance of HepG2 cells to ROS. HeLa cells had much higher basic total glutathione (T-GSH) level than HepG2 cells, while the ratio of basic reduced glutathione (GSH)/oxidized glutathione (GSSG) in HepG2 cells was nearly twice than that in HeLa and A549 cells. Inhibition of glutathione markedly enhanced H(2)O(2)- or ARS-induced cytotoxicity in HeLa and A549 cell lines but modestly enhanced the cytotoxicity of H(2)O(2) and even did not affect the cytotoxicity of ARS in HepG2 cells. Moreover, addition of GSH remarkably prevented H(2)O(2)- or ARS-induced cytotoxicity in HeLa and A549 cell lines, further indicating the involvement of GSH in scavenging ROS in the two cell lines. HepG2 cells exhibited higher catalase activity than HeLa cells, and inhibiting catalase activity by using 3-aminotriazole (3-AT, a specific inhibition of catalase) or catalase siRNA remarkably reduced the resistance of HepG2 cells to ROS, demonstrating the key roles of catalase for the strong resistance of HepG2 cells to ROS. Collectively, catalase activity instead of glutathione level dominates the resistance of cells to ROS.

The “trash to treasure” process has been extensively demonstrated for various energy and environmental issues in the past few decades. Abundant biomass is well accepted as a carbon-rich, sustainable, and renewable precursor, offering us a plethora of possibilities for advanced materials for energy conversion and storage as well as environmental treatments; spatial modification of biomass facilitates the formation of a unique three-dimensional (3D) structure with micro- to macropores, yielding higher surface area and enhanced physicochemical properties. This novel concept provides sufficient reaction sites, excellent adsorption capability, more activated sites for catalyst doping, and fascinating electrochemical performance. Basically, the 3D cadre of biomass-derived carbon strengthens the economic competitiveness of these materials and broadens their applications in fields such as in supercapacitors, chemical batteries, bioenergy harvest, adsorbents for organic pollutants and greenhouse gases, and efficient (photo)catalysts. The scope of this review mainly focuses on the most popular synthesis methodology of three-dimensional carbon materials derived from biomass and their critical applications in the fields of energy and environment.

Binding of Bcl-XL to Beclin-1 reduces Beclin-1's capacity to induce autophagy. This report aims to explore whether this interaction affects Bcl-XL's anti-apoptotic function. Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) two-hybrid assay to quantify the stoichiometry of Bcl-XL-Beclin-1 complex in living cells coexpressing Bcl-XL-CFP and Beclin-1-YFP, we showed that Bcl-XL bond to Beclin-1 to form hetero-oligomers whose stoichiometry increases from 1:1 to 2:1 or higher with the increasing relative expression level of Bcl-XL, indicating the multiple binding sites of Beclin-1 with Bcl-XL. Co-expression of Bcl-XL and Beclin-1 exhibited consistent anti-apoptotic ability against staurosporine (STS)-induced apoptosis with expression of Bcl-XL alone irrespective of the relative expression level between Beclin-1 and Bcl-XL. Collectively, Bcl-XL complexed with Beclin-1 maintains full anti-apoptotic ability independent of the stoichiometry of Bcl-XL-Beclin-1 complex.

An enzyme-free biosensor for the amplified detection of aflatoxin B1 has been constructed based on a catalytic DNA circuit. Three biotinylated hairpin DNA probes (H1, H2, and H3) were designed as the assembly components to construct the sensing system (triplex H1-H2-H3 product). Cascaded signal amplification capability was obtained through toehold-mediated strand displacement reactions to open the hairpins and recycle the trigger DNA. By the use of streptavidin-functionalized gold nanoparticles as the signal indicators, the colorimetric readout can be observed by the naked eye. In the presence of a target, the individual nanoparticles (red) aggregate into a cross-linked network of nanoparticles (blue) via biotin-streptavidin coupling. The colorimetric assay is ultrasensitive, enabling the visual detection of trace levels of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) as low as 10 pM without instrumentation. The calculated limit of detection (LOD) is 2 pM in terms of 3 times standard deviation over the blank response. The sensor is robust and works even when challenged with complex sample matrices such as rice samples. Our sensing platform is simple and convenient in operation, requiring only the mixing of several solutions at room temperature to achieve visible and intuitive results, and holds great promise for the point-of-use monitoring of AFB1 in environmental and food samples.

The ability of Geobacter species to transfer electrons outside cells enables them to play an important role in biogeochemical and bioenergy processes. Our knowledge of the extracellular electron transfer (EET) process in the genus Geobacter is mainly from the study of G. sulfurreducens, and in order to fully investigate the EET mechanisms in the genus Geobacter, other Geobacter species should also be considered. This study focused on the EET of Geobacter soli GSS01, which exhibited a capability of reducing insoluble Fe(III) oxides and generating electrical current comparable with G. sulfurreducens PCA. Electrochemical characterization, including cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry, and electrochemical in situ FTIR spectra, revealed that different redox proteins contributed to the electrochemical behaviors of G. soli and G. sulfurreducens. Based on comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses, OmcS was the most upregulated protein in both G. soli and G. sulfurreducens cells grown with insoluble Fe(III) oxides vs. soluble electron acceptor. However, the proteins including OmcE and PilA that were previously reported as being important for EET in G. sulfurreducens were downregulated or unchanged in G. soli cells grown with insoluble electron acceptors vs. soluble electron acceptor, and many proteins that were upregulated in G. soli cells grown with insoluble electron acceptors vs. soluble electron acceptor, such as OmcN, are not important for EET in G. sulfurreducens. We also identified 30 differentially expressed small RNAs (sRNAs) in G. soli cells grown with different acceptors. Taken together, these findings help to understand the versatile EET mechanisms that exist in the genus Geobacter and point to the possibility of sRNA in modulating EET gene expression.

C-type cytochromes (c-cyts) facilitate microbial extracellular electron transfer and play critical roles in biogeochemical cycling, bioelectricity generation and bioremediation. In this study, a simple and effective method has been developed to detect microbial c-cyts by means of peroxidase mimetic reaction on screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). To this end, bacteria cells were immobilized onto the working electrode surface of SPCE by a simple drop casting. After introducing 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) solution, microbial c-cyts with peroxidase-like activity catalyze the oxidation of TMB in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The oxidized TMB was electrochemically determined and the current signal was employed to calculate the c-cyts content. This electrochemical method is highly sensitive for microbial c-cyts with a low detection limit of 40.78 fmol and a wide detection range between 51.70 fmol and 6.64 pmol. Moreover, the proposed technique can be universally expanded to detect c-cyts in other bacteria species such as Fontibacter ferrireducens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Comamonas guangdongensis and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, the proposed method confers an in situ facile and quantitative c-cyts detection without any destructive sample preparations, complex electrode modifications and expensive enzyme- or metal particle- based signal amplification. The suggested method advances an intelligent strategy for in situ quantification of microbial c-cyts and consequently holds promising application potential in microbiology and environmental science.

Extracellular respiring bacteria (ERB) are a group of bacteria capable of transferring electrons to extracellular acceptors and have important application in environmental remediation. In this study, a decomposable quantum-dots (QDs)/DNA nanosphere probe was developed for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of ERB. The QDs/DNA nanosphere was self-assembled from QDs-streptavidin conjugate (QDs-SA) and Y-shaped DNA nanostructure that is constructed based on toehold-mediated strand displacement. It can release numerous fluorescent QDs-SA in immunomagnetic separation (IMS)-based immunoassay via simple biotin displacement, which remarkably amplifies the signal of antigen-antibody recognizing event. This QDs/DNA-nanosphere-based IMS-fluorescent immunoassay is ultrasensitive for model ERB Shewanella oneidensis, showing a wide detection range between 1.0 cfu/mL and 1.0 × 108 cfu/mL with a low detection limit of 1.37 cfu/mL. Moreover, the proposed IMS-fluorescent immunoassay exhibits high specificity, acceptable reproducibility and stability. Furthermore, the proposed method shows acceptable recovery (92.4–101.4%) for detection of S. oneidensis spiked in river water samples. The proposed IMS-fluorescent immunoassay advances an intelligent strategy for rapid and ultrasensitive quantitation of low-abundance analyte and thus holds promising potential in food, medical and environmental applications.

The genus Shewanella is ubiquitous in environment and has been extensively studied for their applications in bioremediation. A novel immunoassay for ultrasensitive detection of Shewanella oneidensis was presented based on graphene oxide (GO) as nanogold carrier with silver enhancement strategy. The enhanced sensitivity was achieved by employing conjugate-featuring gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and antibodies (Ab) assembled on bovine serum albumin (BSA)-modified GO (Ab/AuNPs/BSA/GO). After a sandwich-type antigen-antibody reaction, Ab/AuNPs/BSA/GO conjugate binding on the target analyte produced an enhanced immune-recognition response by the reduction of silver ion in the present of hydroquinone. The deposited silver metal was dissolved with nitric acid and subsequently quantified by anodic stripping voltammetry. The high AuNPs loading capacity of GO and the obvious signal amplification by gold-catalyzed silver deposition offer an excellent detection method with a wide range of linear relationship between 7.0 × 10(1) and 7.0 × 10(7)cfu/mL. Furthermore, the immunoassay developed in this work exhibited high sensitivity, acceptable stability and reproducibility. This simple and sensitive assay method has promising application in various fields for rapid detection of bacteria, protein and DNA.

Dissolved organic carbons in biochar (BDOM), obtained from thermal treatment (i.e., pyrolysis) of biomass, is of great importance due to their excellent redox properties and capacity to remove contaminants from the aqueous and soil environment. However, little is known about the intimate relationship between redox activity of BDOM and pyrolysis temperatures of the biomass. In this study, BDOMs were extracted from wheat straw biochar at different temperatures (from 300 °C to 700 °C). The physicochemical analyses indicated that the quinone and aromatic moieties in BDOM increased with the increase in pyrolysis temperature up to 500 °C, and then decreased as the temperature continued to rise. The results of electrochemical analysis revealed that the electron transfer capability (ETC) reached a maximum for the BDOM-500 with an electron donor capability (EDC) of 0.14 mmole- (g C)−1 and electron accepting capability (EAC) of 0.31 mmole- (g C)−1, which were both significantly higher than that of other as-prepared BDOMs. The EAC and EDC of BDOM samples both followed the order BDOM-500 > BDOM-400 > BDOM-600 > BDOM-300 > BDOM-700, demonstrating that the quinone and aromatic groups highly contributed to the redox activity of the BDOM. For Cr(VI) removal, the highest removal efficiency (~77%) was achieved in the presence of BDOM-500 and lactate as an electron donor, which was consistent with the profiles of ETC. These findings present a guidance for the optimization of BDOM that efficiently mediates pollutants removal for environmental remediation.

Triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) is one of the major organophosphate esters (OPEs) with increasing consumption. Considering its largely distribution and high toxicity in aquatic environment, it is important to explore an efficient treatment for TPHP. This study aimed to investigate the accelerated degradation of TPHP in a three-electrode single chamber bioelectrochemical system (BES). Significant increase of degradation efficiency of TPHP in the BES was observed compared with open circuit and abiotic controls. The one-order degradation rates of TPHP (1.5 mg L−1) were increased with elevating sodium acetate concentrations and showed the highest value (0.054 ± 0.010 h−1) in 1.0 g L−1 of sodium acetate. This result indicated bacterial metabolism of TPHP was enhanced by the application of micro-electrical field and addition acetate as co-substrates. TPHP could be degraded into diphenyl phosphate (DPHP), hydroxyl triphenyl phosphate (OH-TPHP) and three byproducts. DPHP was the most accumulated degradation product in BES, which accounted more than 35.5% of the initial TPHP. The composition of bacterial community in BES electrode was affected by the acclimation by TPHP, with the most dominant bacteria of Azospirillum, Petrimonas, Pseudomonas and Geobacter at the genera level. Moreover, it was found that the acute toxic effect of TPHP to Vibrio fischeri was largely removed after the treatment, which revealed that BES is a promising technology to remove TPHP threaten in aquatic environment.

An ultrasensitive and high-throughput nucleic acid detection system, termed as strand displacement reaction-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (SDR-ELISA), has been developed on the basis of antibody-like DNA nanostructures. Three digoxigenin or biotin modified hairpin probes are utilized to construct antibody-like DNA nanostructures that feature affinity toward streptavidin and anti-digoxigenin antibody via isothermal target-triggered SDR amplification. These antibody-like nanostructures have been employed to conjugate horseradish-peroxidase-labeled anti-digoxigenin antibody with streptavidin that is immobilized on microliter plate wells for enzyme-linked colorimetric assay. The resulting SDR-ELISA system is ultrasensitive for target DNA with a low detection limit of 5 fM. Moreover, the SDR-ELISA system is capable of discriminating DNA sequences with single base mutations, and do so in a high-throughput manner by detection and quantification of up to 96 or 384 DNA samples in a single shot. This detection system is further applied to detect other DNA targets such as Shewanella oneidensis specific DNA sequence, which indicates the generality of proposed SDR-ELISA system. The integration of SDR amplification and convenient ELISA technique advances an intelligent strategy for ultrasensitive and high-throughput nucleic acid detection, which may be amenable for direct visual detection and quantification using an accompanying quantitative color chart.

The detection of nucleic acid sequences is of great importance in a variety of fields. An ultrasensitive DNA sensing platform is constructed using elaborately designed diblock hairpin probes (DHPs) that are composed of hairpin and poly-adenine blocks. The introduction of an initiator DNA target triggers the catalytic assembly of probes DHP1, DHP2 and DHP3 to fabricate numerous poly-adenine-tailed branched DNA junctions, which significantly amplify the signal of the target-DNA-recognizing event without any enzyme. Coupled to a gold nanoparticle-based colorimetric assay, the amplified recognition signal can be quantitatively detected or visually read with the naked eye. The combination of the high-efficiency target-catalyzed DHP assembly and sensitive gold-based colorimetric assay offers an ultrasensitive detection of DNA with a detection limit of 0.1 pM and a dynamic range from 0.01 to 5 pM. The proposed sensing platform can discriminate even single-base mutations. Moreover, the sensing platform can be expanded to detect pollutant-degrading-bacteria-specific DNA sequences. The proposed sensing system should offer an alternative approach for the detection of nucleic acids in the fields of microbiology, biogeochemistry, and environmental sciences.

Rapid detection and enumeration of target microorganisms is considered as a powerful tool for monitoring bioremediation process that typically involves cleaning up polluted environments with functional microbes. A novel colorimetric assay is presented based on immunomagnetic capture and bacterial intrinsic peroxidase activity for rapidly detecting Shewanella oneidensis, an important model organism for environmental bioremediation because of its remarkably diverse respiratory abilities. Analyte bacteria captured on the immunomagnetic beads provided a bacterial out-membrane peroxidase-amplified colorimetric readout of the immunorecognition event by oxidizing 3, 3', 5, 5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the present of hydrogen peroxide. The high-efficiency of immunomagnetic capture and signal amplification of peroxidase activity offers an excellent detection performance with a wide dynamic range between 5.0 × 10(3) and 5.0 × 10(6) CFU/mL toward target cells. Furthermore, this method was demonstrated to be feasible in detecting S. oneidensis cells spiked in environmental samples. The proposed colorimetric assay shows promising environmental applications for rapid detection of target microorganisms.

A disposable strip biosensor for the visual detection of Hg(2+) in aqueous solution has been constructed on the basis of Hg(2+)-triggered toehold binding and exonuclease III (Exo III)-assisted signal amplification. Thymine-thymine (T-T) mismatches in the toehold domains can serve as specific recognition elements for Hg(2+) binding with the help of T-Hg(2+)-T base pairs to initiate toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction. Exo III-catalyzed target recycling strategy is introduced to improve the sensitivity. Using gold nanoparticles as a tracer, the output signals can be directly observed by the naked eye. The assay is ultrasensitive, enabling the visual detection of trace amounts of Hg(2+) as low as 1 pM without instrumentation. This sensing system also displays remarkable specificity to Hg(2+) against other possible competing ions. This sensor is robust and can be applied to the reliable monitoring of spiked Hg(2+) in environmental water samples with good recovery and accuracy. With the advantages of cost-effectiveness, simplicity, portability, and convenience, the disposable strip biosensor will be a promising candidate for point-of-use monitoring of Hg(2+) in environmental and biological samples.

A novel thermophilic, Gram-staining positive bacterium, designated DX-2(T), was isolated from the anode biofilm of a microbial fuel cell. Cells of the strain were oxidase positive, catalase positive, facultative anaerobic, motile rods. The isolate grew at 30-60 °C (optimum 50 °C) and pH 5-9 (optimum pH 8-8.5). The pairwise 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities showed that strain DX-2(T) was most closely related to Bacillus fumarioli LMG 17489(T) (96.2 %), B. firmus JCM 2512(T) (96.0 %) and B. foraminis DSM 19613(T) (95.7 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain DX-2(T) formed a cluster with B. smithii (95.5 %) and B. infernus (94.9 %). The genomic G+C content of DX-2(T) was 43.7 mol%. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-7. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and unknown phospholipids. The major cellular fatty acid was iso-C16:0. Based on its phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic features, and results of phylogenetic analysis, the strain was identified to represent a distinct novel species in the genus Bacillus, and the name proposed is B. thermophilum sp. nov. The type strain is DX-2(T) (=CCTCC AB2012194(T) = KCTC 33128(T)).

Influenza A virus infects the human respiratory system and causes acute and fatal pulmonary diseases. The emergence of drug-resistant viral strains highlights the need for alternative therapeutic approaches. In this work, IgY antibody was raised in immunized laying hens, and its antiviral activity was evaluated in the context of passive immunization. With inactivated whole H1N1 virus, high-titer IgY antibody 9.18 mg/mL egg yolk was induced by the eighth week after immunization. Western blotting and the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test demonstrated that the IgY antibody could specifically bind the neuraminidase and hemagglutinin of the H1N1 virus. In the plaque reduction assay, the IgY antibody reduced the H1N1 viral infection in MDCK (Madin-Darby canine kidney) cells. In a mouse model, the anti-H1N1 IgY antibody exhibited in vivo protection by reducing the infectious titer of the virus in the lung while maintaining the weight and normal structure of the lung tissue. Additionally, the anti-H1N1 IgY antibody exhibited protective activity comparable to the neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir. These results demonstrated that IgY can be easily produced and can offers an effective alternative approach for influenza control.

A Gram-stain negative, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain WM-2(T), was isolated from a forest soil in Sihui City, South China, and characterized by means of a polyphasic approach. Growth occurred with 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0-1 %) and at pH 5.0-10.5 (optimum pH 8.5) and 4-40 °C (optimum 30 °C) in Luria-Bertani medium. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses showed that strain WM-2(T) is a member of the genus Pseudomonas and most closely related to P. guguanensis, P. oleovorans subsp. lubricantis, P. toyotomiensis, P. alcaliphila and P. mendocina with 97.1-96.6 % sequence similarities. In terms of gyrB and rpoB gene sequences, strain WM-2(T) showed the highest similarity with the type strains of the species P. toyotomiensis and P. alcaliphila. The DNA-DNA relatedness values of strain WM-2(T) with P. guguanensis and P. oleovorans subsp. lubricantis was 48.7 and 37.2 %, respectively. Chemotaxonomic characteristics (the main ubiquinone Q-9, major fatty acids C18:1 ω7c/C18:1 ω6c, C16:0 and C16:1 ω7c/C16:1 ω6c and DNA G+C content 65.2 ± 0.7 mol%) were similar to those of members of the genus Pseudomonas. Polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unknown aminophospholipid, an unknown phospholipid and five unknown lipids. According to the results of polyphasic analyses, strain WM-2(T) represents a novel species in the genus Pseudomonas, for which the name Pseudomonas sihuiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WM-2(T) (=KCTC 32246(T)=CGMCC 1.12407(T)).