Caspase-3 plays a vital role in intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of programed cell death and in cell proliferation. Its detection is an important tool for early detection of some cancers and apoptosis-related diseases, and for monitoring the efficacy of pharmaceuticals and of chemo- and radiotherapy of cancers. This review (with 72 references) summarizes nanomaterial based methods for signal amplification in optical methods for the determination of caspase-3 activity. Following an introduction into the field, a first large section covers optical assays, with subsections on luminescent and chemiluminescence, fluorometric (including FRET based), and colorimetric assays. Further section summarize methods for bioimaging of caspase-3. A concluding section covers current challenges and future perspectives. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.
Hydrazine borane (HB; N2H4BH3)
has been considered to be one of the most promising solid chemical
hydrogen storage materials owing to its high hydrogen capacity and
stability under ambient conditions. Despite that, the high purity
of hydrogen production from the complete dehydrogenation of HB stands
as a major problem that needs to be solved for the convenient use
of HB in on-demand hydrogen production systems. In this study, we
describe the development of a new catalytic material comprised of
bimetallic Ni@Ir core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) supported on
OMS-2-type manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieve nanorods (Ni@Ir/OMS-2),
which can reproducibly be prepared by following a synthesis protocol
including (i) the oleylamine-mediated preparation of colloidal Ni@Ir
NPs and (ii) wet impregnation of these ex situ synthesized Ni@Ir NPs
onto the OMS-2 surface. The characterization of Ni@Ir/OMS-2 has been
done by using various spectroscopic and visualization techniques,
and their results have revealed the formation of well-dispersed Ni@Ir
core–shell NPs on the surface of OMS-2. The catalytic employment
of Ni@Ir/OMS-2 in the dehydrogenation of HB showed that Ni0.22@Ir0.78/OMS-2 exhibited high dehydrogenation selectivity
(>99%) at complete conversion with a turnover frequency (TOF) value
of 2590 h–1 at 323 K, which is the highest activity
value among all reported catalysts for the complete dehydrogenation
of HB. Furthermore, the Ni0.22@Ir0.78/OMS-2
catalyst enables facile recovery and high stability against agglomeration
and leaching, which make it a reusable catalyst in the complete dehydrogenation
of HB. The studies reported herein also include the collection of
wealthy kinetic data to determine the activation parameters for Ni0.22@Ir0.78/OMS-2-catalyzed dehydrogenation of HB.
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