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We report a strategy for conjugated polymer (CP)-based optical DNA detection with improved selectivity. The high sensitivity of CP-based biosensors arises from light harvesting by the CP and the related amplified fluorescent signal transduction. We demonstrate that the use of magnetic microparticles significantly improves the selectivity of this class of DNA sensors. Compared with previously reported DNA sensors with CP amplification, this novel sensing strategy displays excellent discrimination against non-cognate DNA in the presence of a protein mixture or even human serum. We also demonstrate that the magnetically assisted DNA sensor can conveniently identify even a single-nucleotide mismatch in the target sequence.

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G-quadruplex (G4)/hemin DNAzyme is promising horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-mimic candidate in the biological field. However, its relatively unsatisfactory catalytic capacity limits the potential applications. Inspired by nature protease, we conducted a proximity-enhanced cofactor assembly strategy (PECA) to form an exceptional HRP mimic, namely zippered G4/hemin DNAzyme (Z-G4/H). The hybridization of short oligonucleotides induced proximity assembly of the DNA-grafted hemin (DGH) with the complementary G4 sequences (cG4s), mimicking the tight configuration of protease cofactor and apoenzyme. The detailed investigations of catalytic efficiency and mechanism verified the higher activity, more rapid catalytic rate and high environmental tolerance of the Z-G4/H than the classical G4/hemin DNAzymes (C-G4/H). Furthermore, a proximity recognition transducer has been developed based on the PECA for sensitive detection of gene rearrangement and imaging human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 protein (HER2) dimerization on cell surfaces. Our studies demonstrate the high efficiency of Z-G4/H and its universal application potential in clinical diagnostics and biomolecule interaction research. It also may offer significant opportunities and inspiration for the engineering of the protease-free mimic enzyme.

On the basis of the ionophore model, polyether analogues 4 and 6 were designed and synthesized to mimic the naturally occurring annonaceous acetogenins corossolin (2) and bullatin (5), which were discovered as members of a large family of novel polyketides with cytotoxicity, antitumoral, and other biological activities since 1982. The preliminary screening shows that they have compatible cytotoxicity with the corresponding natural annonaceous acetogenins. These results open a potential way to find more active antitumor agents with simplified structures based on natural annonaceous acetogenins.

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Recently, a hybrid architecture that utilizes the complementary nature of free-space optics (FSO) and radio frequency (RF) links with respect to their individual weather sensitivities was proposed to significantly increase availability for terrestrial broadband links. Based on this architecture, we developed a channel model integrating both the RF and FSO channels. Using the model and cloud distribution data obtained from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project, availability of an airborne hybrid FSO/RF link is evaluated. From the results, we conclude that if the FSO link alone is used, availability is greatly hampered by clouds due to attenuation and temporal dispersion. Contrarily, the RF signals are relatively immune to cloud influence, thus improving the hybrid link availability significantly. Furthermore, because of the significant temporal dispersion caused by multiple scattering of cloud particles, availability of FSO links can be improved by using frequency division schemes, though far from compensating for losses incurred by clouds.

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