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Label-free and sensitive detection of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) is still a big challenge in the arena of prostate cancer diagnosis in males. We present a comparative study for label-free PSA aptasensor and PSA immunosensor for the PSA-specific monoclonal antibody, based on graphene quantum dots-gold nanorods (GQDs-AuNRs) modified screen-printed electrodes. GQDs-AuNRs composite has been synthesized and used as an electro-active material, which shows fast electron transfer and catalytic property. Aptamer or anti-PSA has immobilized onto the surface of modified screen printed electrodes. Three techniques are used simultaneously, viz. cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and electrochemical impedence spectroscopy (EIS) to investigate the analytical performance of both PSA aptasensor and PSA immunosensor with its corresponding PSA antigen. Under optimum conditions, both sensors show comparable results with an almost same limit of detection (LOD) of 0.14 ng mL−1. The results developed with aptasensor and anti-PSA is also checked through the detection of PSA in real samples with acceptable results. Our study suggests some advantages of aptasensor in terms of better stability, simplicity and cost effectiveness. Further our present work shows enormous potential of our developed sensors for real application using voltammetric and EIS techniques simultaneous to get reliable detection of the disease.

A polyaniline–gold nanocomposite impregnated in a chitosan matrix and immobilized with cholesterol oxidase for redox mediator based cholesterol sensors.

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Rapid industrialization, increasing energy demand, and climate change are the conditions that forced the researchers to develop a clean, efficient, renewable, and sustainable source of energy which has a potential to replace fossil fuels. Ethanol is one of the attractive and suitable renewable energy resources. In present study, effectiveness of microwave pretreatment in combination with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for increasing enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw has been investigated and under optimum conditions obtained a maximum reducing sugar (1334.79 g/mL) through microwave assisted NaOH pretreatment. Chemical composition analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the removal of lignin, hemicellulose, and silicon content is more in microwave assisted NaOH pretreatment than the blank sample. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the crystallinity index of rice straw treated with microwave assisted alkali (54.55%) is significantly high as compared to the blank (49.07%). Hence, the present study proves that microwave assisted alkali pretreatment can effectively enhance enzymatic digestibility of rice straw and it is feasible to convert rice straw for bioethanol production.

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