Peng Wu

Insulin, an essential drug for diabetes, is prone to be aggregated due to its inherent amyloidogenicity. Particularly for insulin injections, improper handling or storage (e.g., vibration and heat) can lead to drug deterioration, namely, formation of early oligomers that are highly toxic. Compared to the cloudy amyloid fibrils, the early oligomers are highly soluble and less viscous, thus posing a great challenge for their detection. Thioflavin T (ThT) is the “gold-standard” fluorescent probe for protein aggregation and insulin fibrils but fails in recognition of the early soluble oligomers. Herein, a ThT derivative with a stronger donor unit and a larger molecular volume, namely, ThTPD, was designed with improved viscosity sensitivity and oligomer-binding affinity. In the model of insulin aggregation, ThTPD exhibited an obvious fluorescence response in the very early oligomer stage (∼30 s), whereas ThT only responded to the protofibrils and fibrils (∼30 min). For circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy that is typically explored for protein aggregation study, a signal emerged until the protofibril formation stage (∼10 min). Real-sample analysis with commercial insulin injections demonstrated that ThTPD could achieve early deterioration evaluation, making it a promising, convenient, and rapid probe for the early deterioration monitoring of insulin injections.

The loading of peroxyoxalate into a molecularly imprinted gel greatly improved its hydrophilicity, achieving intense (70-fold enhancement) and persistent (>1 h) chemiexcitation of carbon dots under physiological conditions.

Quantitative PCR (qPCR) is the gold standard for molecular diagnostics. Colorimetric readout can greatly simplify PCR-based diagnostics and make them appealing for decentralized testing. Current colorimetric PCR schemes mostly target the dsDNA amplicons. It is expected that pyrophosphate (Py), the inherent product of PCR (in fact, all nucleic acid amplification schemes), stands as a simpler colorimetric target, due to its versatile complexing with various metal ions/indicators. However, Py-based colorimetric PCR has not been reported yet, partially because it will receive serious competitive complexation from Mg2+ in PCR. Herein, we introduced the Sc3+-hydroxynaphthol blue (Sc-HNB) complex to facilitate Py-based colorimetric PCRs. Because of the higher stability of Sc-HNB over Mg-HNB and Sc-Py over Mg-Py, Py generated during PCR cycles can directly displace HNB from the Sc-HNB complex in a Mg2+-independent manner, yielding a distinct color change. The proposed strategy features simplicity and low cost and can be coupled with PCR in both real-time and end-point manner, with sensitivity for target gene detection comparable to conventional qPCR. Because of the robustness of the Py-displacement reactions, the proposed colorimetric PCR could work with even water bath heating and was compatible with the existing PCR kits. To further validate its feasibility and accuracy, human papillomavirus (HPV) detection in vaginal swab samples was carried out, with results fully consistent with those obtained by qPCR. All of these results indicate that the Py-displacement-based colorimetric PCR can be a promising tool for decentralized nucleic acid testing.

A Gd ³⁺ -AMP hydrogel could serve as an efficient universal matrix for room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) induction of guest dyes. A visible afterglow (>1 s) was observed for the thioflavin T (ThT)-encapsulated hydrogel (ThT gel).

Reflective displays use eye‐compatible ambient light to showcase the image, thus featuring better readability and higher energy efficiency over the emissive displays. Primary colors suitable for reflective display can be easily produced via various chemical chromogenic reactions, but from primary colors to color pixels, assigning and instruction of binary data is essential, which in turn guide the generation of colorful images via encoding and decoding. Herein, we proposed a chemical primary color pixel strategy using Rose Bengal (RB, a derivative of the well‐known logic gate molecule fluorescein), together with a chromogenic substrate 3,3’,5,5’‐tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), to achieve chemical primary color pixels. Specificall Yey, the pH‐dependent photosensitization activity of RB was explored (oxidation of TMB) and combined with the pH‐modulated refreshable TMB‐based chromogenic reaction, which allowed the use of pH and light to dually modulate the chromogenic reaction for CMY primary color output. Meanwhile, such system could perform binary logic gates, and was capable of decoding and encoding the binary data of images. The resultant chemical primary color pixels featured a full‐color gamut and facile refreshing, which permitted image display in a full‐color reflective mode with a resolution of 51 PPI and extreme visual comfort.

Reflective displays use eye‐compatible ambient light to showcase the image, thus featuring better readability and higher energy efficiency over the emissive displays. Primary colors suitable for reflective display can be easily produced via various chemical chromogenic reactions, but from primary colors to color pixels, assigning and instruction of binary data is essential, which in turn guide the generation of colorful images via encoding and decoding. Herein, we proposed a chemical primary color pixel strategy using Rose Bengal (RB, a derivative of the well‐known logic gate molecule fluorescein), together with a chromogenic substrate 3,3’,5,5’‐tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), to achieve chemical primary color pixels. Specificall Yey, the pH‐dependent photosensitization activity of RB was explored (oxidation of TMB) and combined with the pH‐modulated refreshable TMB‐based chromogenic reaction, which allowed the use of pH and light to dually modulate the chromogenic reaction for CMY primary color output. Meanwhile, such system could perform binary logic gates, and was capable of decoding and encoding the binary data of images. The resultant chemical primary color pixels featured a full‐color gamut and facile refreshing, which permitted image display in a full‐color reflective mode with a resolution of 51 PPI and extreme visual comfort.

Rapid detection of pet-related pathogens enables doctors/owners to identify potential illnesses early, thus facilitating timely treatment, lowering veterinary expenses, and decreasing the risk of zoonotic diseases. Currently, lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) strips are mostly adopted for pet disease diagnosis but suffer from poor sensitivity that may cause delays in illness diagnosis. Here, we propose the combination of recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA, applicable at body temperature) with lateral flow assay (LFA, readout of amplicons) strips for the rapid and sensitive diagnosis of infectious pet diseases. To improve the detection specificity, T7 exonuclease (T7 Exo)-assisted selective recognition of the RPA amplicons was adopted, which endowed compatibility of RPA with LFA detection. For feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) detection, the proposed RPA-LFA exhibited a sensitivity enhancement of 10⁴-fold when compared with the conventional LFIA_FPV. The results of FPV analysis in real cat feces anal swab samples (collected from a local pet hospital) were in good agreement with those obtained by PCR. The universality of the proposed RPA-LFA was further demonstrated for the detection of canine parvovirus (CPV) commonly found in dogs. Besides, using LFA with dual test lines, the simultaneous detection of FPV and CPV was also achieved. The overall results highlighted the appealing feature of RPA-LFA in the facile diagnosis of infectious pet diseases.

Understanding how interfacial environments regulate radical-mediated activation and transformation of carbon-halogen (C-X) bonds is essential for advancing selective organic synthesis and sustainable halogenated compound conversion. Herein, we elucidate the interfacial-environment-regulated radical pathways governing C-X bond activation of 3-bromothiophenol (3-BrTP) on Au(111). Helium low-temperature plasma serves as a controllable source of reactive radicals, while tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) enables nanoscale visualization of reaction products. TERS imaging reveals distinct distributions of coupling and hydroxylation products, indicating environment-dependent radical pathways. Interfacial water is found to steer the transformation from aryl-aryl coupling toward hydroxylation, whereas the presence of CO₂ or bicarbonate redirects radicals toward selective carboxylation. These findings uncover the fundamental role of interfacial microenvironments in dictating radical reaction selectivity and provide a mechanistic foundation for environmentally benign and controllable C-X bond activation processes.

Tracing the geographical origin of rice is of great significance in protecting the rights and interests of consumers and legitimate producers, as well as ensuring food safety. Here, we propose the combination of machine learning (ML) and clustering-triggered emission (CTE) of rice for identifying the geographical origin of rice. Upon studying the CTE-related emission properties of rice samples of different origins, it was found that minor differences in the intrinsic emission properties of rice samples did exist but were difficult to be directly used for geographical origin tracing. Machine learning was thus introduced to explore such minor differences. Using the emission properties of rice (fluorescence and phosphorescence wavelengths and lifetimes) as the features, several ML models were evaluated. It turned out that the artificial neural network (ANN) worked best after training (n = 284), which exhibited a classification accuracy of 96.4% for the test set (n = 72). For 13 unknown rice samples, the proposed "CTE + ANN" model exhibited an identification accuracy of 84.6%. The universality of the proposed geographical origin tracing approach (CTE + ANN) was further extended to wheat samples whose components are generally similar to rice.