Yong Tang

The CRISPR/Cas12a-G4 DNAzyme biosensing platform is used for rapid detection of nucleic acid and non-nucleic acid targets.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is a major risk factor for chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric cancer, while the virulence-associated proteins CagA and VacA are closely linked to...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a major pathogen associated with gastric ulcers and gastric cancer, infecting approximately half of the global population. Therefore, developing sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective detection methods for H. pylori is critical for public health. We developed an innovative microscale colorimetric microsensor integrated with smartphone ambient-light sensors for portable, on-site quantification of H. pylori-associated urease activity in dental plaque. This low-cost device (< $ 5 fabrication) employs 3D-printed components and a custom app to measure transmittance changes from urease-catalyzed urea hydrolysis with phenol red, achieving a robust correlation with commercial microplate reader absorbance (R² = 0.9989). The system demonstrates exceptional Analytical sensitivity, with limits of detection of 9.75 U/L for urease And 1.709 × 10³ CFU/mL for H. pylori, alongside high reproducibility (CV < 10%) And stability over 14 days. When applied to the on-site detection of dental plaque among volunteers, the smartphone-based colorimetric microsensor exhibited detection results that were highly aligned with H. pylori infections confirmed by the urea breath test. It outperformed commercial test strips And achieved 100% sensitivity, 95.5% specificity, And 97.1% accuracy. This miniaturized, smartphone-based platform offers a promising solution for home self-testing and demonstrates significant potential for enhancing H. pylori preliminary screening at the community level. Graphical abstract

Illicit drug abuse poses a significant global threat to public health and social security, highlighting the urgent need for rapid, sensitive, and versatile detection technologies. To address the limitations of traditional chromatographic techniques—such as high costs and slow response times—and the drawbacks of conventional immunochromatographic sensors (ICS), including low sensitivity and non-intuitive signal outputs, a fluorescence-quenching ICS (FQICS) was developed. This sensor leverages fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between aggregation-induced emission fluorescent microspheres (AIEFMs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The ICS operates on a positive signal-readout mechanism and is integrated with a smartphone-based portable reader, enabling rapid quantitative detection of methamphetamine (MET), morphine (MOR), and ketamine (KET). Detection limits of 0.041, 0.072, and 0.059 ng mL⁻¹ were determined for MET, MOR, and KET, respectively. Recovery rates ranged from 73% to 134% across urine, hair, saliva, and sewage samples, with intra-assay precision consistently below 15%, indicating robust performance in complex matrices. Furthermore, we developed a multiplexed AIEFM-FQICS, enabling the simultaneous detection of three illicit drugs, thereby enhancing detection efficiency and reducing the cost. Generally, this work presents a highly sensitive, field-deployable platform for real-time monitoring in drug interdiction and public safety emergencies, offering substantial potential for practical anti-drug applications. Graphical Abstract

Sensitive and accurate detection of protein biomarkers is crucial for disease diagnosis, especially for early diagnosis. Here, we describe surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based CRISPR/Cas12a assays (S-CRISPR) for protein biomarker detection. Firstly, an S-CRISPR-driven enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (S-CasLISA) was developed utilizing a capture antibody coated on a microplate to recognize the target and a detection antibody labeled with active DNA to trigger the activity of CRISPR/Cas12a. With this assay, we achieved detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as models at the picogram level. The limit of detection (LoD) of S-CasLISA was 0.17 pg mL⁻¹ and in the range of 0.1 pg mL⁻¹ to 10 ng mL⁻¹. Further, we applied aptamer to S-CRISPR (S-Apt-CRISPR), combining the high sensitivity of SERS with the high selectivity of aptamers, while simplifying the operation process of CRISPR detection of protein biomarkers. The proposed S-Apt-CRISPR also could detect picogram-level PSA and without repeated washing steps. The LoD of S-Apt-CRISPR was 0.35 pg mL⁻¹ and in the range of 0.1 pg mL⁻¹ to 10 ng mL⁻¹. Both SERS-based CRISPR/Cas12a assays were validated with clinical samples and demonstrated accuracy consistent with the chemiluminescence immunoassay. The introduction of the CRISPR/Cas12a system with SERS has the effect of improving the analytical capabilities of the system, thereby broadening and facilitating its application in the analysis of sensitive and accurate protein biomarkers. Graphical Abstract