A fast and accurate self-testing tool for COVID-19 diagnosis has become a prerequisite to comprehend the exact number of cases worldwide and to take medical and governmental actions accordingly. SARS-CoV-2 (formerly, 2019-nCoV) infection was first reported in Wuhan (China) in December 2019, and then it has rapidly spread around the world, causing ~ 14 million active cases with ~ 582,000 deaths as of July 2020. The diagnosis tools available so far have been based on a) viral gene detection, b) human antibody detection, and c) viral antigen detection, among which the viral gene detection by RT-PCR has been found as the most reliable technique. In this report, the current SARS-CoV-2 detection kits, exclusively the ones that were issued an “Emergency Use Authorization” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, were discussed. The key structural components of the virus were presented to provide the audience with an understanding of the scientific principles behind the testing tools. The methods that are still in the early research state were also reviewed in a subsection based on the reports available so far.
Aptamers are target specific ssDNA, RNA or peptide sequences generated by an in vitro selection and amplification method called SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential Enrichment), which involves repetitive cycles of binding, recovery and amplification steps. Aptamers have the ability to bind with a variety of targets such as drugs, proteins, heavy metals, pathogens with high specificity and selectivity. Aptamers are similar to monoclonal antibodies regarding their binding affinities, but they provide a number of advantages to the existing antibody-based detection methods that make the aptamers promising diagnostic and therapeutic tools for the future biomedical and analytical applications. The aim of this review article is to provide an overview of the recent advancements in aptamer screening methods along with a concise description of the major application areas of aptamers including the biomarker discovery, diagnostics, imaging and the nanotechnology.
This report aims to provide the audience with a guideline for construction and characterisation of nanobiosensors that are based on widely used affinity probes including antibodies and aptamers and nanomaterials such as carbon-based nanomaterials, plasmonic nanomaterials and luminescent nanomaterials. The affinity probes and major methodologies that have been extensively used to make nanobiosensors, such as thiol-metal interactions, avidin-biotin interaction, p-interactions and EDC-NHS chemistry, were described with the most recent examples from the literature. Characterisation techniques that have been practised to validate nanoparticle surface modification with antibodies and aptamers, including gel electrophoresis, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, dynamic light scattering and circular dichroism were described with examples. This report mainly covers the reports published between
BackgroundDrought is a lifestyle disease. Plant metabolomics has been exercised for understanding the fine-tuning of the potential pathways to surmount the adverse effects of drought stress. A broad spectrum of morphological and metabolic responses from seven Triticeae species including wild types with different drought tolerance/susceptibility level was investigated under control and water scarcity conditions.ResultsSignificant morphological parameters measured were root length, surface area, average root diameter and overall root development. Principal Component Analysis, Partial Least-Squares-Discriminant Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis were applied to the metabolomic data obtained by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry technique in order to determine the important metabolites of the drought tolerance across seven different Triticeae species. The metabolites showing significant accumulation under the drought stress were considered as the key metabolites and correlated with potential biochemical pathways, enzymes or gene locations for a better understanding of the tolerance mechanisms. In all tested species, 45 significantly active metabolites with possible roles in drought stress were identified. Twenty-one metabolites out of forty-five including sugars, amino acids, organic acids and low molecular weight compounds increased in both leaf and root samples of TR39477, IG132864 and Bolal under the drought stress, contrasting to TTD-22, Tosunbey, Ligustica and Meyeri samples. Three metabolites including succinate, aspartate and trehalose were selected for further genome analysis due to their increased levels in TR39477, IG132864, and Bolal upon drought stress treatment as well as their significant role in energy producing biochemical pathways.ConclusionThese results demonstrated that the genotypes with high drought tolerance skills, especially wild emmer wheat, have a great potential to be a genetic model system for experiments aiming to validate metabolomics–genomics networks.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-017-4321-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
334 Leonard St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.