Microbial detection and control of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) decoction pieces are crucial for the quality control of TCM preparations. It is also a key area of research in the measurement technology and equipment development for TCM manufacturing. Guided by TCM manufacturing measurement methodologies, this study presented a design of a novel portable microbial detection device, using Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma decoction pieces as a demonstration. Immunomagnetic separation technology was employed for specific isolation and labeling of target microorganisms. Enzymatic signal amplification was utilized to convert weak biological signals into colorimetric signals, constructing an optical biosensor. A self-developed smartphone APP was further applied to analyze the colorimetric signals and quantify target concentrations. A portable and automated detection system based on Arduino microcontroller was developed to automatically perform target microbial separation/extraction, as well as mimetic enzyme labeling and catalytic reactions. The developed equipment specifically focuses on the rapid and quantitative microbial analysis of TCM active pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates in TCM manufacturing, and final TCM products. Experimental results demonstrate that the equipment could detect Salmonella in samples within 2 h, with a detection limit as low as 5.1 × 10~3 CFU·mL~(-1). The equipment enables the rapid detection of microorganisms in TCM decoction pieces, providing a potential technical solution for on-site rapid screening of microbial contamination indicators in TCM. It has broad application prospects in measurement technology for TCM manufacturing and offers strong technical support for the modernization, industrialization, and intelligent development of TCM.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/analysis* ; Atractylodes/microbiology* ; Rhizome/microbiology* ; Biosensing Techniques/methods* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Colorimetry/instrumentation* ; Quality Control

Viral infections are one of the main causes of deaths and economic losses around the globe, and effective virus detection methods are essential for epidemic prevention and control. Most existing detection methods have problems such as high false negative/positive rates, slow responses, high costs, and dependence on professional equipment and personnel, which are not conducive to the rapid and accurate detection of viruses. Field effect transistor (FET) biosensors have attracted widespread attention due to their advantages of label-free detection, high sensitivity, fast responses, real-time measurement, low power consumption, and small sizes for portability. This article first briefly describes the basic situation of viruses and the structure and detection principle of FET biosensors. Subsequently, it delves into the research achievements in the application of FET biosensors in the detection of influenza viruses, hepatitis viruses, human immunodeficiency virus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Finally, we make a comprehensive summary and reasonable outlook on the role played by FET biosensors in biomedicine.
Biosensing Techniques/instrumentation* ; Transistors, Electronic ; Humans ; SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification* ; Viruses/isolation & purification* ; Orthomyxoviridae/isolation & purification* ; Hepatitis Viruses/isolation & purification* ; Virus Diseases/virology* ; HIV/isolation & purification* ; COVID-19/diagnosis*

Neurotransmitters play an important role in nervous system. Temporal and spatial changes of neurotransmitter distribution are crucial to information processing in neural networks. Biosensors that can visually monitor neurotransmitters are one of the vital tools to explore a variety of physiological and pathological activities. This article reviews recent advances in monitoring neurotransmitters with high temporal and spatial resolution, and introduces the latest fluorescent imaging methods for typical neurotransmitters, including glutamate, dopamine, γ-aminobutyric acid and acetylcholine. The article also summarizes the basic principles, advantages and disadvantages of various visually detection methods, and provides systematic suggestions for designing neurotransmitter sensors with high temporal and spatial resolution.
Animals ; Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; trends ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Neurotransmitter Agents ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the use of the electronic tongue in the evaluation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials with sour, bitter, sweet or salty tastes, and assess the possible application of the sensor in the evaluation of different tastes of traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

METHODAqueous extracts of 22 traditional Chinese medicinal materials were measured by the electronic tongue. The data collected with the tongue was evaluated for discrimination of the samples with multivariate statistical methods: principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant factor analysis (DFA).

RESULTThe electronic tongue was capable of discriminating between samples with different taste modalities and could also distinguish different samples eliciting the same basic taste. Twenty-two traditional Chinese medicinal materials could be classified into five clusters based on PCA. These differences seem to derive from the different tastes. DFA was applied to construct a model to discriminate traditional Chinese medicinal materials with different tastes. And the samples yielded about 88.2% accuracy for cross-validation.

CONCLUSIONWe confirmed that the electronic tongue may provide an analytical procedure for classification of the samples with respect to tastes of the traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods ; Cluster Analysis ; Discriminant Analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; isolation & purification ; Electrical Equipment and Supplies ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Models, Theoretical ; Multivariate Analysis ; Principal Component Analysis ; Reproducibility of Results ; Taste

A stable, uniform, easily implemented, LC-based chemical and biological sensor substrate for orientations of liquid crystals (LCs) for a long-term is urgently needed for medical applications of the sensors. We proposed a use of spin-coating of copper perchlorate (Cu(ClO4)2), with five different concentrations(0-100mmol/L), directly on glass slides for fabricating a layer of chemically-sensitive copper ions. Observing the transmitted light with a polarized microscope, we found the luminosity of the light propagated through sensors deposited with copper ions started to weaken gradually after a certain time. The higher was the concentration of copper ions covered on the glass substrates of the sensors, the faster the weakening occurred, and the less time was needed for transmitted light to turn completely dark. But there was no change in luminosity of the transmitted light for the sensors without Cu(ClO4)2 spin-coating even after stored at room temperature (25 degrees C) for a whole day. When the Cu(ClO4)2 deposited sensors were stored within a drying oven at room temperature (25 degrees C) for 2 months, it was found that there vas almost no change in luminosity of the transmitted lights. The results showed that all the thin films of LC on glass slides functionalized with Cu(ClO4)2 could keep homeotropic and stable orientation for a long time; the concentration of Cu (ClO4)2I has an influence on the orientation response speed of LC from planar to perpendicular orientation.
Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; Copper ; chemistry ; Glass ; chemistry ; Liquid Crystals ; chemistry

The foot drop functional electrical stimulation (FES) system consisting of various sensors has been widely applied to the disease of the foot drop. However, the current system is limited to the research on walking on the ground and ignores other important actions of foot in one's daily life, such as walking up and down the stairs, squatting and lying down, etc. In this work, we applied the dual axis angle sensor to the system of the foot drop FES for the first time. Such a system can not only stimulate the foot drop during normal walking, but also identify squatting, sitting, and lying down etc. and furthermore, the system can switch off automatically. In the meanwhile, it can also detect falls and other dangerous actions. The accuracy of our system can achieve 100%, 81.9%, 95.8%, 99.0% and 66.9% for normal walking, sitting-standing, walking up the stairs, walking down the stairs and squatting-standing respectively.
Adult ; Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods ; Electric Stimulation ; instrumentation ; methods ; Equipment Design ; Female ; Foot Deformities, Acquired ; therapy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

With its rapid development, the electrochemical biosensor has recently been widely used in gene diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and medical sciences. More and more attention has been focused on how to improve the sensitivity and selectivity of biosensor. In this review, the principle and composition of DNA electrochemical biosensor is simply introduced, the preparation of biological membrane, the application of indicator are specially emphasized, and the future prospect for the development in this field is given.
Animals ; Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; Conductometry ; instrumentation ; DNA ; chemistry ; Electrochemical Techniques ; Electrodes ; Equipment Design ; Graphite ; chemistry ; Humans ; Metal Nanoparticles ; chemistry

In order to study the way of evaluating human performance under heat and cold stresses, we developed a wearable physiological monitoring system-intelligent belt system, capable of providing real-time, continuous and dynamic monitoring of multiple physiological parameters. The system has following features: multiuser communication, high integration, strong environment adaptability, dynamic features and real time physiological monitoring ability. The system uses sensing belts and elastic belts to acquire physiological parameters, uses WIFI to build wireless network monitoring for multiuser, and uses Delphi to develop data processing software capable of real-time viewing, storagng, processing, and alerting. With four different intensity-activity trials on six subjects and compared with standard laboratory human physiological acquisition instruments, the system was proved to be able to acquire accu-rate physiological parameters such as ECG, respiration, multi-point body temperatures, and body movement. The system worked steadily and reliably. This wearable real-time monitoring system for human heat and cold stresses can solve the problem facing our country that human heat stress and cold stress monitoring technology is insufficient, provide new methods and new ways for monitoring and evaluation of human heat and cold stresses under real task or stress environment, and provide technical platform for the study on human ergonomics.
Biosensing Techniques ; methods ; Cold Temperature ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Monitoring, Ambulatory ; instrumentation ; Stress, Physiological ; physiology

This article summarizes biological detection techniques based on magnetic signal of magnetic nanoparticles and the research progress of these techniques in biomedicine. Biological detection based on magnetic nanoparticles is faster, more accurate and more convenient compared to traditional optical techniques and causes much attention. It can be classified into giant magneto resistive biosensor (GMR), magnetic relaxation switch (based on T2 relaxation time), AC susceptibility (based on Brownian relaxation) and magnetic lateral flow immunoassay. These techniques can be combined with nanotechnology, microfluidics, immunoassay and bio-chips and have wide application prospects in clinical diagnosis, biological detection, environmental monitoring and food security areas.
Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods ; Immunoassay ; instrumentation ; methods ; Magnetic Phenomena ; Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; Nanotechnology ; instrumentation ; Point-of-Care Systems

BACKGROUND: The Hb levels of prospective blood donors are usually determined using a finger prick test. A new noninvasive Hb device has the advantage of not causing any sampling pain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the noninvasive Hb sensor and to compare its measurements with those of a currently used portable hemoglobinometer. METHODS: Hb was measured using a noninvasive Hb sensor (NBM-200; OrSense, Israel), a portable hemoglobinometer (HemoCue; HemoCue AB, Sweden), and an automated hematology analyzer (LH500; Beckman Coulter, USA). The correlations between Hb measurements taken by the NBM-200 and HemoCue with those by an automated hematology analyzer were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Hb measurements were compared among 3 different Hb level groups. RESULTS: The mean Hb values of 506 blood donors were 14.1 g/dL by the NBM-200, 14.0 g/dL by the LH500, and 14.3 g/dL by the HemoCue. The correlation between the LH500 and the NBM-200 was substantial (ICC=0.69), while that between the LH500 and the HemoCue agreed almost perfectly (ICC=0.86). CONCLUSIONS: The possibility to judge to be eligible for donors who are ineligible to donate was substantial when using NBM-200. Even though the NBM-200 has the apparent advantage of noninvasiveness, its use in pre-screening should be given meticulous attention. Since pre-donation testing is crucial to protecting donors' health, complete evaluation of the instrument should be performed prior to use.
Automation ; Biosensing Techniques/*instrumentation ; Blood Chemical Analysis/*instrumentation ; Blood Donors ; Donor Selection/*methods ; Female ; Hemoglobins/*analysis ; Humans ; Male ; Sensitivity and Specificity