Yonghui Zhang

Conventional two-dimensional fiber optic interferometric curvature sensor often suffers from significant sensitivity disparities between orthogonal directions. To address this limitation, this article proposes a two-dimensional fiber interferometric curvature sensor based on an eccentric fiber combined with offset fusion splicing. The eccentric fiber is employed as the sensing fiber, and transverse offset fusion splicing is performed orthogonally to its biased core. This configuration induces asymmetric optical fields distribution of the core and cladding modes in the two orthogonal directions, resulting in substantial field offset that enables high-sensitivity two-dimensional curvature sensing. The experimental results indicate that within the curvature range of 0-0.32 m^-1, the sensor achieves a maximum sensitivity of 48.54 nm/m^-1 in the ± X and ± Y directions and a minimum sensitivity of -41.02 nm/m^-1. The proposed method offers a facile fabrication route and delivers high sensitivity for two-dimensional curvature measurement.

Objective(s): Gefitinib (GEF) is a targeted medicine used to treat locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, GEF's hepatotoxicity limits its clinical use. This study aims to investigate the protective effect of naringin (NG) against GEF-induced hepatotoxicity. Materials and Methods: Fifty female ICR mice were randomly divided into 5 groups: Control, GEF (200 mg/kg), NG (50 mg/kg) + GEF (200 mg/kg), NG (100 mg/kg) +GEF (200 mg/kg), NG (200 mg/kg) +GEF (200 mg/kg). After 4 weeks of continuous administration, the mice were euthanized. The blood and liver tissue samples were collected. Results: The results indicated that the GEF group showed increased liver index, liver enzyme activities, and decreased glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities. Some hepatocytes showed hydropic degeneration and focal necrosis. Cell apoptosis, Cleaved-caspase3, and Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) increased. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of numerous autophagic lysosomes or autophagosomes around the cell nucleus. Compared to the GEF group, NG can reverse these changes. Conclusion: In summary, NG alleviates GEF-induced hepatotoxicity by anti-oxidation, inhibiting cell apoptosis, and autophagy. Therefore, this study suggests the use of NG to mitigate GEF's toxicity to the liver.

The fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor used for the detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine has the problems of low sensitivity and difficult specific recognition. This paper proposed a wave type fiber SPR sensor, which reduced the mode of transmitted light through a periodic wave structure and caused concentrated and total reflection of the transmitted beam at the interface between the bent peak cladding and the air. A 50 nm gold film was coated on the surface of the cladding in the wave structure area to form the SPR sensing area. By controlling the width and height of the wave structure to control the total reflection angle of the transmitted light, i.e., the SPR incidence angle, the sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor was effectively improved to 4972 nm/RIU. Furthermore, HSP90AA protein was modified on the gold film of the sensor to achieve specific detection of hyperoside. The longest single detection time was only 3 minutes, and the detection sensitivity was 0.53 nm/(µg/ml), with a detection limit as low as 0.68µg/ml, which is comparable to liquid chromatography. The proposed wave type fiber SPR sensor is fast in production and has high structural mechanical strength, providing a new approach for the rapid, highly sensitive, and specific detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.

Fiber SPR sensor can be used for rapid detection of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. To achieve micro-detection of specific active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, its further development requires significantly improving sensitivity and achieving specific detection. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated a new type of highly sensitive and specific detection fiber SPR sensor, which employed a graded index multimode fiber as the sensing fiber. Due to the self-focusing effect of the graded index multimode fiber, the modes number of transmission light in the sensing area is significantly reduced. By using an eccentric core fiber to inject light and controlling the depth of the flat bottom groove made on the graded index multimode fiber to control the incident angle of light, the sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor is greatly improved. By modifying RXRα protein on the surface of sensing gold film, the specific recognition of the active ingredient Baohuoside I in traditional Chinese medicine Epimedium has been achieved. According to the experiment, the sensor has a detection sensitivity of 0.66nm/(μg/ml) and a LOD of 0.15μg/ml. At a concentration of 100μg/ml, the wavelength shift of Baohuoside I or a mixed solution containing Baohuoside I is higher than 60nm, while the wavelength shift of other components is lower than 10nm. The new sensor proposed in this paper has a stable structure, high sensitivity, and specific recognition ability, providing a new solution for the highly sensitive detection of specific active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine using fiber SPR sensor.

The study of active compounds of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important composition of the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. However, most of the traditional Chinese medicine active ingredient detection equipment has the problems of large volume and poor flexibility. This paper proposes an all-fiber microfluidic chip based on the principle of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for arctigenin detection, reducing the diameter of the active ingredient sensor of traditional Chinese medicine to 125 μm. We used capillary fiber as the microfluidic channel, constructed the SPR sensing zone on the inner wall of the capillary fiber, and fixed the target protein on the surface of the sensing zone. We realized the specific detection of arctigenin, with the detection sensitivity of 0.205 nm/(μg/mL) and the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.49 μg/mL. We also verified the specific detection effect of the microfluidic chip in mixed solution. In conclusion, we proposed a kind of all-fiber microfluidic chip with small size, flexibility and real-time specificity detection, which provides a new solution for miniaturization, flexibility and rapid detection of active molecules in TCM detection devices.

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, drug therapies that can reverse the maladaptive process and restore heart function are limited. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (GLPs) are one of the main active components of G. lucidum (Ganoderma lucidum), and they have various pharmacological effects. GLPs have been used as Chinese medicine prescriptions for clinical treatment. In this study, cardiac hypertrophy was induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in mice. We found that GLPs ameliorate Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vitro and attenuate pressure overload–induced cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. Further research indicated that GLPs attenuated the mRNA levels of hypertrophic and fibrotic markers to inhibit cardiac hypertrophy through the PPARγ/PGC-1α pathway. Overall, these results indicate that GLPs inhibit cardiac hypertrophy through downregulating key genes for hypertrophy and fibrosis and attenuate pressure overload-induced pathological cardiac hypertrophy by activating PPARγ. This study provides important theoretical support for the potential of using GLPs to treat pathological myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure.

In order to perform microfluidic detection of cytokines with low concentration, such as growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11), the most common method is to construct microfluidic channels and integrate them with SPR sensing units. In this paper, we proposed a novel all-fiber SPR microfluidic chip for GDF11 detection. The method was to construct the SPR sensing area on a designed D-shaped multimode fiber, which was nested inside a quartz tube to form a semi-cylindrical microfluidic channel. The surface of the SPR sensing area experienced sensitization and specifically modification to achieve the specific detection of GDF11. When the sensitivity of detection was 1.38 nm/lg(g/mL) and the limit of detection was 0.52 pg/mL, the sample consumption was only 0.4 µL for a single detection. The novel all-fiber SPR microfluidic detection chip has the advantages of flexible design, compact structure and low sample consumption, which is expected to be used in wearable biosensing devices for real-time online monitoring of trace cytokines in vivo.

There are few methods and insufficient accuracy for growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) concentration detection. In this paper, we designed a twisted fiber cladding surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor, which can achieve a high precision detection of GDF11 concentration. The new structure of the fiber cladding SPR sensor was realized by coupling the light in the fiber core to the cladding through fiber thermal fusion twisting micromachining technology; a series of functionalized modifications were made to the sensor surface to obtain a fiber sensor capable of GDF11 specific recognition. The experimental results showed when GDF11 antigen concentration was 1 pg/mL–10 ng/mL, the sensor had a detection sensitivity of 2.518 nm/lgC, a detection limit of 0.34 pg/mL, and a good log-linear relationship. The sensor is expected to play a role in the rapid and accurate concentration detection of pathological study for growth differentiation factors.