Analytical Chemistry

The role of plasma and serum proteomics in characterizing human disease, identifying biomarkers, and advancing diagnostic technologies is rapidly increasing. However, there is an ongoing need to improve proteomic workflows in terms of accuracy, reproducibility, platform transferability, and cost-effectiveness. Here, we present the Charite Open Peptide Standard for Plasma Proteomics (OSPP), a panel of 211 extensively pre-selected, stable-isotope-labeled peptides combined in an open, versatile, an...

BackgroundCerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak is typically diagnosed by detecting a protein marker {beta}2-transferrin ({beta}2-Tf) in secretion samples. {beta}2-Tf and {beta}1-transferrin ({beta}1-Tf) are glycoforms of human transferrin (Tf). A novel affinity capture technique for sample preparation, called microprobe-capture in-emitter elution (MPIE), was incorporated with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) to analyze the Tf glycoforms and elucidate the structures of {beta}1-Tf and {beta}2-T...

The newly emerged Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has numerous mutations that are not found in other variants of concern (VOCs). Despite acquiring extended functions in adapting to the host-cell environment, the viral genetic variation exerts a potential negative impact on a molecular test, which in turn, compromises public health and safety. The Liberty16 has been clinically validated as a flexible and accessible device system for running the affordable SalivaDirect real time PCR detection assay ...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus has stretched national testing capacities to breaking points in almost all countries of the world. The need to rapidly screen vast numbers of a countrys population in order to control the spread of the infection is paramount. However, the logistical requirement for reagent supply (and associated cost) of RT-PCR based testing (the current front-line test) have been hugely problematic. Mass spectrometry-based methods using swab and gargle ...

BACKGROUNDMetabolic reprogramming in breast cancer is depicted as a crucial change in the tumor microenvironment. Besides the molecular understanding of metabolic heterogeneity, appreciable attentions are drawn to characterize metabolite profiles in tumor tissue and derived biological fluids and tissue materials. Several findings reported on the metabolic alterations of free aromatic amino acids (FAAAs) and other metabolites in biological fluids. Furthermore, there is a significant gap in the de...

Silicon nanowire field effect transistor (SiNW-FET) biosensors are capable of label-free, real-time and biological detection with high sensitivity and specificity. However, direct observation on protein-protein interaction in blood or serum is still very difficult because of the complex physiological environment and Debye-screening effect. In order to overcome the detection obstacles, we used dialysis desalination method to purify the detection fluid and overcome Debye-screening effect. In our r...

Nucleic acids in biofluids are emerging biomarkers for molecular diagnosis of diseases, whose clinical use has been hindered by the lack of sensitive and convenient detection assays. Herein, we report a sensitive nucleic acid detection method based on allosteric DNAzyme biosensors named SPOT (sensitive loop-initiated DNAzyme biosensor for nucleic acid detection) by rationally designing a programmable DNAzyme of endonuclease capability. SPOT can be activated once a nucleic acid target of specific...

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWPESI-MS enables with its greatly simplified handling and fast result delivery the application field for high-throughput use in routine settings. In health care and research, pre-analytical errors often remain undetected and disrupt diagnosis, treatment, clinical studies and biomarker validations incurring high costs. This proof-of-principle study investigates the suitability of PESI-MS for robust, routine sample quality evaluation. One of the most common pre-analytical q...

Sars-CoV-2 is a human pathogen and is the main cause of COVID-19 disease. COVID-19 is announced as a global pandemic by World Health Organization. COVID-19 is characterized by severe conditions and early diagnosis can make dramatic changes both for personal and public health. In order to increase the reach for low cost equipment which requires a very limited technical knowledge can be beneficial to diagnose the viral infection. Such diagnostic capabilities can have a very critical role to contro...

Rapid diagnosis is critical for the treatment and prevention of diseases. In this research, we report sensing of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 virus in seconds via an electrochemical platform consisting of gold micropillar array electrodes decorated with reduced graphene oxide and functionalized with recombinant viral antigens. The array electrodes are fabricated by Aerosol Jet (AJ) nanoparticle 3D printing, where gold nanoparticles (3-5nm) are assembled in 3D space, sintered, and integrated...

The COronaVIrus Disease (COVID-19) is a newly emerging viral disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide led the WHO declare pandemic within a few month after the first case of infection. Due to the lack of a prophylactic measure to control the virus infection and spread, early diagnosis and quarantining of infected as well as the asymptomatic individuals are necessary for the containment of this pandemi...

Public healthcare demands effective and pragmatic diagnostic tools to address the escalating challenges in infection management in resource-limited areas. Recent advance in CRISPR-based biosensing promises the development of next-generation tools for disease diagnostics, including point-of-care (POC) testing for infectious diseases. Currently prevailing strategy of developing CRISPR assays exploits only the non-specific trans-cleavage function of a CRISPR-Cas12a/Cas13a system for detection and c...

The aim of this study was to provide validated procedures allowing to detect the SARS-CoV-2 and an internal control in a unique one-step duplex RT-qPCR. Two internal controls were tested, targeting either the Schmallenberg virus RNA provided by the NARILIS laboratory (University of Namur) with a HEX-labelled probe or a Diagenode Diagnostics internal control with a Cy5-labelled probe. Our results showed that Ct values of the RT-qPCR duplex assay were even smaller in the optimized working conditio...

Extracellular nanocarriers, such as extracellular vesicles (EVs), lipoproteins, supermeres, and exomeres are diverse lipid-protein-nucleic acid assemblies. Among them, supermeres hold significant diagnostic potential but are challenging to characterize due to limited surface biomarker information and labor-intensive isolation methods. This study introduces an isolation-free Ion Exchange Membrane Sensing method for detection of supermeres within 30 minutes using 50 L of sample, with a sensitivity...

Enriching diagnostically relevant cells from heterogeneous clinical samples is critical for enabling accurate detection and molecular analysis. Bioelectronic platforms offer a promising approach to this challenge by combining selective capture with real-time, label-free monitoring. We focus on Barretts oesophagus (BE), a precursor to oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), where current non-endoscopic tools like the capsule-sponge yield samples dominated by background squamous cells, limiting diagnost...

BackgroundThe human urine peptidome reflects physiological and pathological states, making it a valuable resource for biomarker discovery. However, endogenous peptides often exist as cascades of truncated variants, complicating comparative analyses. To address this, we developed a "peptide cluster" approach, grouping overlapping peptides into representative clusters for robust statistical evaluation. MethodsUrine samples from 55 healthy volunteers (23 males, 32 females) were analyzed via LC-MS/...

Human proteases play major roles in various pathological conditions, including dysregulated immune responses in sepsis, making them strong candidates for developing diagnostic markers. Despite this potential, the progress of developing protease-based diagnostic tools has remained slow due to significant technical barriers associated with measuring protease activity, mainly stemming from the vast diversity and the lack of substrate specificity, which complicate the interpretation of protease acti...

Printed circuit board (PCB) based biosensors have often utilized hard gold electroplating, that nullifies the cost advantages of this technology as compared to screen printed electrodes. Electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) is a popular gold deposition process widely used in PCB manufacturing, but vulnerable to pinhole defects and large surface roughness, which compromises biosensor performance. In this work, we present a method to address these challenges through electrodeposition of methyl...

BackgroundAs pathogens such as influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can easily cause pandemics, rapid diagnostic tests are crucial for implementing efficient quarantine measures, providing effective treatments to patients, and preventing or containing a pandemic infection. Here, we developed the immunochromatography-NanoSuit(R) method, an improved immunochromatography method combined with a conventional scanning electron microscope (SEM), which enables...

Mass testing is fundamental to face the pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 discovered at the end of 2019. To this aim, it is necessary to establish reliable, fast and cheap tools to detect viral particles in biological material so to identify the people capable to spread the infection. We demonstrate that a colorimetric biosensor based on gold nanoparticle (AuNP) interaction induced by SARS-CoV-2 lends itself as an outstanding tool for detecting viral particles in nasal and throat swa...