Analyst最新文献

{"title":"Engineering Aptamer Biosensors with Near Intrinsic Binding Affinities","authors":"Ruolin Ding,Xinghong Wu,Zhihe Zhao,Feng Li","doi":"10.1039/d6an01266c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01266c","url":null,"abstract":"Aptamer biosensors are ideal tools for wash-free bioanalysis and live cell imaging. However, current engineering approaches require the deactivation of aptamers in the absence of the targets, resulting in compromised binding affinities. Here, we introduce aptamermediated DNA strand displacement, an innovative design principle that enables aptamer biosensors with near-intrinsic binding affinities comparable to those of native aptamers. We demonstrate that enhancement in effective binding affinities significantly improves sensing performances with increased signal-tobackground ratios and lower limit-of-detection. Furthermore, this approach is highly versatile and generalizable, applicable to both small molecules and protein targets.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A highly sensitive Ni–Ag/GO SERS platform constructed for rapid detection of organic pollutants in environmental systems","authors":"Jinping Tang,Fuqiang Qian,Ziwei Yu,Yuhai Wang,Chunxu Wang,Yuan Chai,Dewen Kong,Jin Wang","doi":"10.1039/d6an00947f","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an00947f","url":null,"abstract":"Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful spectroscopic technique, and the development of high-performance substrates is essential for achieving ultrasensitive molecular detection. Herein, a Ni-modified Ag/graphene oxide (Ni–Ag/GO) was successfully synthesized. The effects of GO content and Ag+ concentration on the SERS performance of the composite were systematically investigated. The outstanding SERS activity of the Ni–Ag/GO substrate is attributed to the synergistic contributions of the electromagnetic enhancement generated by Ag NPs, the molecular enrichment and charge-transfer effects of GO, and the interfacial electronic modulation induced by Ni. Using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as the probe molecule, the substrate exhibited excellent sensitivity with an ultralow limit of detection (LOD) of 2.35 × 10–14 M. The substrate also showed high signal uniformity, with a calculated relative standard deviation (RSD) of 8.52% and retained 90.34% SERS activity after four months of storage, demonstrating good long-term stability. Furthermore, the substrate was also successfully applied to the detection of methyl blue (MeB), malachite green (MG), and fenvalerate (FV), with calculated LODs of 1.21 × 10–11, 2.58 × 10–11, and 8.47 × 10–15 M, respectively. In real-sample analyses, the substrate achieved satisfactory recoveries of 98.12%–107.3% for MeB, 98.0%–107.1% for MG, and 95.70%–105.5% for FV, demonstrating reliable analytical performance. In addition, the Ni–Ag/GO composite showed excellent catalytic activity toward sodium borohydride (NaBH4) assisted degradation of MeB. Therefore, this work provides a viable strategy for developing multifunctional SERS substrates that integrate ultrasensitive molecular detection with catalytic degradation of organic pollutants for environmental applications.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Single-cell metabolic profiling reveals time-associated metabolic trajectories linked to functional changes in anti-tumor NK cells","authors":"Huiping Qiao,Simin Cheng,Lulu Feng,Siyuan Tan,Xiaoyun Gong,Xuping Shentu","doi":"10.1039/d6an00494f","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an00494f","url":null,"abstract":"Cellular metabolism shapes immune-cell function, yet single-cell metabolic heterogeneity remains analytically challenging to resolve. Here, we applied label-free cytometry by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CyESI-MS) to NK-92MI, a human natural killer (NK) cell line. Cells were collected from a NK-92MI/HeLa co-culture model at 0 h (resting condition), 6 h (early activation condition), and 72 h (prolonged stimulation condition). The 0 h condition was characterized by baseline cytotoxicity, low interferon gamma (IFN-γ) production, and minimal programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) expression. The 6 h condition was characterized by peak cytotoxicity and increased IFN-γ production. The 72 h condition was characterized by reduced cytotoxicity and IFN-γ production relative to their 6 h peaks, together with increased PD-1 expression. Single-cell metabolic profiling revealed time-associated metabolic trajectories linked to these functional changes. Across the dataset, 158 metabolite features were detected. The early activation condition showed changes consistent with antioxidant, central carbon/amino-acid, and lipid remodeling. In contrast, the prolonged stimulation condition showed broader metabolic imbalance. Together, these findings establish a proof-of-concept framework for linking single-cell metabolic trajectories with independently measured changes in NK-cell function.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A smartphone-assisted colorimetric sensing of Cr(VI) in water samples based on Zr-Fe/CeO2@Pt nanozyme and ascorbic acid-mediated strategy","authors":"Jie Yang,Shiye Kan,Zhicheng Ren,Xianwen Kan","doi":"10.1039/d6an01247g","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01247g","url":null,"abstract":"The presence of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in environmental water poses a serious threat to ecosystems and human health. Thus, developing sensitive and convenient testing platforms for Cr(VI) determination in water is of great importance. Herein, a novel smartphone-integrated colorimetric platform was constructed for Cr(VI) sensitive detection based on a hollow Zr/Fe-CeO2 microsphere modified with Pt nanoparticles (ZFC@Pt) catalysis. The synthesized ZFC@Pt exhibited high peroxidase (POD)-like activity to catalyze oxidation of TMB, which was restrained by ascorbic acid (AA) due to its reduction. However, the inhibition effect was alleviated when Cr(VI) was further added, triggering an “on–off–on” signal for Cr(VI) sensitive detection with a linear range and limit of detection of 0.1 μM – 10 μM and 65 nM, respectively. With the good sensitivity, selectivity, and stability, the quantification of Cr(VI) was achieved with recovery rates of 94.45%-107.62% (UV-vis spectrum) and 93.05-107.86% (smartphone-incorporated colorimetric sensing platform), respectively. This work provided a practical, low-cost, and portable platform for on-site Cr(VI) monitoring for environmental monitoring applications.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating ToF-SIMS and machine learning reveals a mammary tumor-associated multi-ion signature","authors":"Auraya Manaprasertsak,Wei Tang,Caroline Lööf,Laila Azemovic,Sofie Mohlin,Catharina Hagerling,Kenneth J. Pienta,Julhash U. Kazi,Per Malmberg,Emma U. Hammarlund","doi":"10.1039/d6an01090c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01090c","url":null,"abstract":"Cancer biomarkers should be specific, reproducible, and accessible from practical biological samples. Although omics-based approaches have substantially advanced biomarker discovery, many strategies still rely on individual molecules or limited molecular panels, which may not fully capture the complexity of tumor biology. Whether tumor-associated chemical signatures can improve cancer detection remains an open question. Here, we investigated whether a breast tumor-associated multi-ion signature could be detected in mammary gland tissue from the MMTV-PyMT breast cancer mouse model, as well as in liver, serum, and fur collected from the same animals. Low-mass ions (m/z 50–250) were analyzed using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) combined with multivariate analysis and machine learning. A robust mammary tumor multi-ion signature reliably distinguished tumor-bearing from healthy mice, with both partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and random forest achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.997 under leave-one-animal-out cross-validation. Animal-label permutation testing confirmed that classification performance was significantly greater than expected by chance, and 98 of 313 ions differed significantly at the animal level. While liver and serum samples showed little evidence of tumor-associated discrimination, fur showed the highest classification performance and the greatest overlap in discriminative ions with mammary tissue. These findings demonstrate that low-mass ToF-SIMS enables robust identification of mammary tumor-associated multi-ion signatures, but that their detectability varies across biological matrices. Although the evidence in fur remained exploratory, it suggests that some tumor-associated chemical information may extend beyond the primary tumor and warrants further investigation of hair and related minimally invasive samples for cancer detection.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149368260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Label-free Isolation of Heterogeneous Breast Cancer Cell Populations via Insulator-Based Dielectrophoresis †","authors":"Gürhan Özkayar,Ismene N Usman,Ece Yakın,Jaco Kraan,Kristen David,Duco Bosma,John Martens,Peter Ten Dijke,Georg Pesch,Pouyan E. Boukany","doi":"10.1039/d6an00976j","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an00976j","url":null,"abstract":"Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are valuable biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and monitoring, yet their isolation from blood remains challenging due to their phenotypic heterogeneity and rarity. Labelfree microfluidic technologies offer a promising alternative to affinity-based approaches by exploiting intrinsic biophysical differences between cell types. Here, we developed a microfluidic platform for label-free cell separation based on insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP). The microfluidic device employs an array of triangular insulating structures that generate strong electric field gradients in response to an externally applied alternating current (AC) electric field, enabling selective isolation of breast cancer cells from blood cells based on their dielectric properties. Hydrodynamic focusing is used to confine the sample stream and precisely control cell trajectories within the separation region. Numerical simulations were performed to optimize the electric field distribution and fluid flow characteristics within the device. Experimental validation using breast cancer cell lines (mesenchymallike MDA-MB-231 cells and epithelial-like MCF-7 cells) spiked into peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) demonstrates selective dielectrophoretic deflection of cancer cells while PBMCs largely follow the central streamline. The platform achieves recovery rates exceeding 98% and a separation purity above 65% within the optimized operating conditions. The proposed system provides a simple label-free approach to separate heterogeneous cell populations and represents a promising tool for microfluidic liquid biopsy enrichment applications.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149368279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Single-platform monitoring of methyl linoleate oxidation using Vocus high-resolution chemical ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry","authors":"Mehdi Moayedi,Andrea Romano,Luca Cappellin,Jiayi Zhang,Iuliia Khomenko,Matteo Tonezzer,Michele Pedrotti,Franco Biasioli","doi":"10.1039/d6an01149g","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01149g","url":null,"abstract":"Monitoring lipid oxidation is relevant to food quality, safety, nutritional value and shelf life. Furthermore, oxidised lipids and reactive breakdown products can contribute to inflammation, oxidative stress and disease. Oxidation initially produces relatively stable primary hydroperoxides that decompose into oxygenated and volatile secondary products associated with rancid off-flavours and potentially harmful species. Since these compounds span a broad range of volatilities and chemical properties, no single sampling or analytical approach can readily measure them all simultaneously. We evaluated whether NH₄⁺ Vocus high-resolution chemical ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry could monitor this progression in methyl linoleate using dynamic solution injection (DSI) and dynamic headspace analysis (DHS). Overall, the temporal patterns observed over 0–168 h agreed with established lipid oxidation chemistry. DSI detected hydroperoxides and other low-volatility oxygenated products, whereas DHS detected volatile secondary products. Monohydroperoxides peaked at 104 h and declined thereafter, intact-chain oxygenated products and cleavage products mostly persisted or accumulated later, while aldehyde-rich headspace signals were strongest at 168 h. Radical-related features were also observed, although these assignments remain tentative. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that direct-injection mass spectrometry can provide time-resolved monitoring of primary and secondary oxidation products within a single analytical framework, supporting more comprehensive assessment of lipid oxidation chemistry.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149368265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ru nanoparticles confined in yolk-shell SiO2 hollow spheres with boosted activity for smartphone-assisted colorimetric assay of dopamine at neutral pH","authors":"Haitao Feng,Na Pan,Danhua Ge,Xiaojun Chen","doi":"10.1039/d6an01298a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01298a","url":null,"abstract":"The rational development of nanozymes with superior catalytic performance at neutral pH is critically essential for medical, pharmaceutical and biosensing applications. Herein, Ru nanoparticles confined within yolk-shell mesoporous silica nanospheres (Ru/SiO2 YSHSs) were synthesized via a formaldehyde-controlled method and NaBH4 reduction, followed by the construction of a dual-mode colorimetric and smartphone-based RGB sensing platform for the detection of dopamine (DA) under neutral pH. The Ru/SiO2 YSHSs exhibited excellent peroxidase (POD)-like activity, catalyzing 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) oxidation by H2O2 to produce a blue product. Kinetic studies showed a high affinity for TMB (Km = 0.13 mM) and a Hill coefficient of 2.09, indicating a positive cooperative effect during H2O2 binding. The colorimetric assay towards DA has a linear range of 0.1-20 μM and a detection limit (LOD) of 0.016 μM, while the smartphone RGB method gives a detection limit of 0.12 μM with good linearity. Both methods presented high selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. The platform was successfully applied to detect DA in fetal bovine serum and pork samples, with recoveries of 96.0-107.5% and RSD < 5%. This work provides a facile strategy for constructing Ru-based nanozymes and a portable, cost-effective dual-mode sensing platform for DA detection, promising for clinical diagnostics and food safety.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"100 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149360088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interface-transformation-enhanced AgFeS2 nanowires coupled with multistep enzymatic cascade amplification for photoelectrochemical immunoassay of IL-6","authors":"Bingwei Xue,Zhichao Yu,Meifang Lin,Dianping Tang,Chunmeng Yao","doi":"10.1039/d6an01299j","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an01299j","url":null,"abstract":"Sensitive determination of interleukin-6 (IL-6) is essential for assessing uremic inflammation. Herein, we developed a separation-based photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunoassay for IL-6 using AgFeS2 nanowires coupled with a tyramine-bridged dual-enzyme cascade amplification strategy. AgFeS2 nanowires were synthesized via a two-step phase transformation from Ag nanowires, retaining one-dimensional morphology and a narrow band gap of 0.79 eV, which enables efficient charge separation and stable photocurrent generation. The cascade begins with Au-horseradish peroxidase (Au-HRP) catalyzing H2O2 to generate free radicals, which converted tyramine into positively charged species that bind to the bovine serum albumin, thereby specifically capturing streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase (SA-ALP). SA-ALP then hydrolyzed L-ascorbic acid phosphate (AAP) to ascorbic acid (AA), an electron donor that amplifies the PEC signal. By separating biological amplification in microplates from PEC transduction on screen-printed electrodes, biomolecule inactivation is avoided. The sensor shows a linear range of 0.01–100 ng mL-1, a detection limit of 4.31 pg mL-1, and excellent selectivity. This method employs a well-designed, highly efficient signal transduction and amplification strategy, offering new insights for the development of highly sensitive immunosensing platforms.","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149360094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"QuEChERS extraction in ecotoxicology: analytical procedure and applications to biota - a review.","authors":"Anna-Jorina Wicht, Nadja Kalinke, Carolin Huhn","doi":"10.1039/d6an00689b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an00689b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This review focuses on publications concerning examples of QuEChERS extraction for the analysis of the body burden of chemicals in biota and metabolite studies including method developments and adjustments to be applied to different organisms. Emerging pollutants are a topic of growing concern. To evaluate associated risks of chemicals in the environment, the knowledge about the chemicals' uptake in biota is crucial to predict effects and their environmental behavior but this requires more chemical analysis. Classical extraction procedures such as solid phase extraction for aqueous samples or extraction of solid samples with a specific organic solvent, mostly developed for target analysis, have several drawbacks such as costs and limited analyte coverage as discussed in this review. Its focus is thus on new strategies and multi-residue extraction procedures with a broader polarity range. The most important among them is the QuEChERS extraction (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) originally developed for pesticide analysis in food. Its advantages like low solvent consumption, the fast and easy sample preparation, the good matrix removal and the broad polarity spectrum of extractable analytes making it interesting also for environmental analysis are presented and limitations and alternatives are discussed. In recent years, these new methods have been increasingly applied in biota analysis including terrestrial and aquatic insects, edible fish and mussels. To be applicable in ecotoxicology, miniaturization, extraction conditions and sample cleanup were optimized for both targeted and non-targeted approaches. These are summarized in this review together with aspects on quantification and figures of merit to provide researchers with a broader view on the possibilities to adapt and enhance their analytical strategies as most of the 66 publications included in this review concerning QuEChERS in environmentally relevant biota samples focus on applications but not on methodological aspects. We summarize applications for different organisms and different classes of chemicals showing that besides pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other wastewater-derived chemicals are more often addressed in recent studies. These applications include investigating contaminant burden in biota from environmental samples, the use of organisms as bioindicators and the assessment of the pollution of aquatic and terrestrial environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":63,"journal":{"name":"Analyst","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149339899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}