Wearable technology and mobile healthcare systems are both increasingly popular solutions to traditional healthcare due to their ease of implementation and cost-effectiveness for remote health monitoring. Recent advances in research, especially the miniaturization of sensors, have significantly contributed to commercializing the wearable technology. Most of the traditional commercially available sensors are either mechanical or optical, but nowadays transdermal microneedles are also being used for micro-sensing such as continuous glucose monitoring. However, there remain certain challenges that need to be addressed before the possibility of large-scale deployment. The biggest challenge faced by all these wearable sensors is our skin, which has an inherent property to resist and protect the body from the outside world. On the other hand, biosensing is not possible without overcoming this resistance. Consequently, understanding the skin structure and its response to different types of sensing is necessary to remove the scientific barriers that are hindering our ability to design more efficient and robust skin sensors. In this article, we review research reports related to three different biosensing modalities that are commonly used along with the challenges faced in their implementation for detection. We believe this review will be of significant use to researchers looking to solve existing problems within the ongoing research in wearable sensors.
Sinigrin is present in significant amounts in cruciferous vegetables. Epidemiological studies suggest that the consumption of such vegetables decreases the risk of cancer, and the effect is attributed mainly to allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), a hydrolysis product of sinigrin catalyzed by myrosinase. Anticancer activity of AITC has been previously investigated for several cancer models, but less attention was paid to delivering AITC on the target site. In this study, the gene sequences of core streptavidin (coreSA) and myrosinase (MYR) were cloned in a pET-30a(+) plasmid and transformed into BL21(DE3) E. coli competent cells. The MYR-coreSA chimeric protein was expressed and purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography and further characterized by gel electrophoresis, Western blot, and enzyme activity assay. The purified MYR-coreSA chimeric protein was tethered on the outer membrane of biotinylated adenocarcinoma A549 cells and then treated with various concentrations of sinigrin. Our results showed that 20 µM of sinigrin inhibited the growth of A549 cells tethered with myrosinase by ~60% in 48 h. Furthermore, the levels of treated cells undertaken apoptosis were determined by Caspase-3/7 activation and Annexin-V. In summary, sinigrin harnessed like a prodrug catalyzed by myrosinase to the production of AITC, which induced cell apoptosis and arrested the growth of lung cancer cells.
The limited amount of fusion protein transported into cytosol milieu has made it challenging to obtain a sufficient amount for further applications. To avoid the laborious and expensive task, T7 promoter-driving pET-30a(+) coding for chimeric gene of thymidine phosphorylase and core streptavidin as a model system was constructed and transformed into a variety of E. coli strains with T7 expression system. Our results demonstrated that the pET-30a(+)-TP-coreSA/Lemo21(DE3) system is able to provide efficient expression of soluble TP-coreSA fusion protein for purification. Moreover, the eluted TP-coreSA fusion protein tethered on biotinylated A549 carcinoma cells could effectively eliminate these malignant cells after administrating prodrug 5′-DFUR.
Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is a phytochemical that is abundantly present in cruciferous vegetables of the Brassicaceae family, such as cabbage, broccoli, mustard, wasabi, and cauliflower. The pungent taste of these vegetables is mainly due to the content of AITC present in these vegetables. AITC is stored stably in the plant as its precursor sinigrin (a type of glucosinolate), which is physically separated from myrosin cells containing myrosinase. Upon tissue disruption, myrosinase gets released and hydrolyzes the sinigrin to produce AITC and by-products. AITC is an organosulfur compound, both an irritant and toxic, but it carries pharmacological properties, including anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory activities. Despite the promising anticancer effectiveness of AITC, its clinical application still possesses challenges due to several factors, i.e., low aqueous solubility, instability, and low bioavailability. In this review, the anticancer activity of AITC against several cancer models is summarized from the literature. Although the mechanism of action is still not fully understood, several pathways have been identified; these are discussed in this review. Not much attention has been given to the delivery of AITC, which hinders its clinical application. However, the few studies that have demonstrated the use of nanotechnology to facilitate the delivery of AITC are addressed.
CD47 ectodomain tethered on the surface of lentiviral vectors endowing them with a phagocytosis-resistant feature.
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