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Wearable sensors for sweat trace metal monitoring have the challenges of effective sweat collection and the real-time recording of detection signals. The existing detection technologies are implemented by generating enough sweat through exercise, which makes detecting trace metals in sweat cumbersome. Generally, it takes around 20 min to obtain enough sweat, resulting in dallied and prolonged detection signals that cannot reflect the endogenous fluctuations of the body. To solve these problems, we prepared a multifunctional hydrogel as an electrolyte and combined it with a flexible patch electrode to realize real-time monitoring of sweat Zn2+. Such hydrogel has magnetic and porous properties, and the porous structure of hydrogel enables a fast absorption of sweat, and the magnetic property of the addition of fabricated Fe3O4 NPs not only improves the conductivity but also ensures the adjustable internal structures of the hydrogel. Such a sensing platform for sweat Zn2+ monitoring shows a satisfied linear relationship in the concentration range of 0.16–16 µg/mL via differential pulsed anodic striping voltammetry (DPASV) and successfully detects the sweat Zn2+ of four volunteers during exercise and resting, displaying a promising path for commercial application.

BackgroundSarcopenia can lead to significant personal, social, and economic burdens. The diagnosis of sarcopenia heavily relies on the identification of Low Skeletal Muscle Mass (LSMM), which is an independent predictor of frailty, disability, and increased risk of death among seniors. Women have physiologically lower levels of skeletal muscle mass than men, and female sarcopenia appears to be more influenced by menopause. They also tend to have higher body fat levels than man, which increases the risk of sarcopenia obesity. On another front, it’s also recognized that humans are largely prone to Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, with global prevalence rates often surpassing 50%. Nevertheless, the interconnection between H. pylori infection and LSMM remains relatively unexplored. Hence, our study specifically targeted women as the research population and sought to explore several risk factors for LSMM. Additionally, we delved into the potential correlation between LSMM and H. pylori infection in women, hoping to gain insights into potential preventative measures or treatment options that may enhance the quality of life for women affected by sarcopenia.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study among women aged over 18 years undergoing physical examination. We performed 13C-urea breath test (UBT) for diagnosis of H. pylori infection and Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) for the assessment of LSMM. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the associations of H. pylori infection with LSMM.ResultsThis study enrolled 1984 Chinese women who were undergoing health check-ups. A univariate logistic regression analysis did not reveal a direct correlation between H. pylori infection and LSMM among this female population (OR=1.149, 95% CI 0.904-1.459, p=0.257). Yet, upon dividing the participants into age-based subgroups, an evident link was observed between H. pylori infection and LSMM in women aged 40 or above (OR=1.381, 95%CI 1.032-1.848, p= 0.030). After adjusting for variables including Age, BMI, TP, ALK, Cre, this relationship remained statistically relevant (OR=1.514, 95%CI 1.085-2.113, p= 0.015).ConclusionsWomen who are over 40 years old and currently infected with H. pylori have an increased risk of developing LSMM. Therefore, timely treatment for H. pylori eradication is recommended for this group of women to reduce the occurrence of LSMM.

Second near-infrared (NIR-II) window optical molecular imaging kicks off a new revolution in high-quality imaging in vivo, but always suffers from the hurdles of inevitable tissue autofluorescence background and NIR-II probe development. Here, we prepare a Förster resonance energy transfer-based ratiometric NIR-II window hydrogen sulfide (H2S) sensor through the combination of an H2S-responsive NIR-II cyanine dye (acceptor, LET-1055) and an H2S-inert rhodamine hybrid polymethine dye (donor, Rh930). This sensor not only exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity, but also shows rapid reaction kinetics (~20 min) and relatively low limit of detection (~96 nM) toward H2S, allowing in vivo ratiometric NIR-II fluorescence imaging of orthotopic liver and colon tumors and visualization of the drug-induced hepatic H2S fluctuations. Our findings provide the potential for advancing the feasibility of NIR-II activity-based sensing for in vivo clinical diagnosis.

Improving the survival rate of cardiomyocytes is the key point to treat most of the heart diseases, and targeting autophagy is a potential advanced therapeutic approach. Monitoring autophagic activity in cardiomyocytes in situ will be useful for studying autophagy-related heart disease and screening autophagy-modulating drugs. Zebrafish, Danio rerio, has been proven as an animal model for studying heart diseases in situ. Taken the advantage of zebrafish, especially the imaging of intact animals, here we generated two stable transgenic zebrafish lines that specifically expressed EGFP-map1lc3b or mRFP-EGFP-map1lc3b in cardiomyocytes under the promoter of myosin light chain 7. We first used a few known autophagy-modulating drugs to confirm their usefulness. By quantifying the density of autophagosomes and autolysosomes, autophagy inducers and inhibitors showed their regulatory functions, which were consistent with previous studies. With the two lines, we then found a significant increase in the density of autophagosomes but not autolysosomes in zebrafish cardiomyocytes at the early developmental stages, indicating the involvement of autophagy in early heart development. To prove their applicability, we also tested five clinical statins by the two lines. And we found that statins did not change the density of autophagosomes but reduced the density of autolysosomes in cardiomyocytes, implying their regulation in autophagic flux. Our study provides novel animal models for monitoring autophagic activity in cardiomyocytes in situ, which could be used to study autophagy-related cardiomyopathy and drug screening.

Porous membranes with uniform nanostructures and selective adsorption can realize molecular filtration with high flux and have gained great attention because of their wide application in water treatment and industrial separation. Herein, a novel hyperbranched poly(ether amine)@poly(vinylidene fluoride) (hPEA@PVDF) porous membrane with oriented nanostructures and selective adsorption of guest molecules was fabricated by applying the combined crystallization and diffusion method for the functionalization of the PVDF membrane. The resulting hPEA@PVDF porous membranes were fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectra. The results indicated that the hPEA@PVDF membrane exhibited oriented open channel structure and high water flux up to 2116 L m-2 h-1, in which the PVDF skeleton was covered by the amphiphilic hPEA layer. The adsorption behavior of hPEA@PVDF porous membranes to 12 hydrophilic dyes including batch adsorption and molecular filtration was systematically investigated. The results revealed that the hPEA@PVDF membrane possessed high adsorption capacity toward erythrosin B (577 μmol g-1) and eosin B (511 μmol g-1), while low adsorption capacity toward calcein (76 μmol g-1) and methylene blue (hardly adsorbed), indicating the selective adsorption behavior toward dyes in aqueous solution. On the basis of this selective property, the hPEA@PVDF could be used to separate the dye mixtures very efficiently through molecular filtration. In addition, the separation efficiency remained 100% after five adsorption-desorption cycles, indicating that it had great potential in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]