Dose response and time course of manganeseenhanced magnetic resonance imaging for visual pathway tracing in vivo

Axonal tracing is useful for detecting optic nerve injury and regeneration,but many commonly used methods cannot be used to observe axoplasmic flow and synaptic transmission in vivo.Manganese（Mn^2＋）-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging（MEMRI） can be used for in vivo longitudinal tracing of the visual pathway.Here,we explored the dose response and time course of an intravitreal injection of Mn Cl2 for tracing the visual pathway in rabbits in vivo using MEMRI.We found that 2 m M Mn Cl2 enhanced images of the optic nerve but not the lateral geniculate body or superior colliculus,whereas at all other doses tested（5–40 m M）,images of the visual pathway from the retina to the contralateral superior colliculus were significantly enhanced.The images were brightest at 24 hours,and then decreased in brightness until the end of the experiment（7 days）.No signal enhancement was observed in the visual cortex at any concentration of Mn Cl2.These results suggest that MEMRI is a viable method for temporospatial tracing of the visual pathway in vivo.Signal enhancement in MEMRI depends on the dose of Mn Cl2,and the strongest signals appear 24 hours after intravitreal injection.

Sensitive and enzyme-free detection for single nucleotide polymorphism using microbead-assisted toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction

This report described a free-enzyme, convenient and inexpensive genotyping biosensor capable of detecting single nucleotide polymorphism at normal temperature based on the combination of toeholdmediated strand displacement reaction（toehold-SDR） and microbead-capture technique. The biosensor consists of a pre-hybridized strand formed by a reporter probe and a capture probe. In the presence of a mutant sequence, there is no toehold-mediated strand displacement and the reporter probe cannot be released from the pre-hybridized strand. Microbeads capture the fluorescent pre-hybridized strand through biotin–streptavidin interaction, so microbeads give out significant fluorescence signal, while there is no fluorescence in the solution. However, in the presence of a matched target, the strand displacement is effectively initiated and the reporter probe is released from pre-hybridized strand. After adding microbeads, the solution produces bright fluorescence, while microbeads have no obvious signal.Genotypes are identified conveniently according to the fluorescence intensity of the solution. The method provides a simple and inexpensive strategy to detect point mutation. Moreover, this biosensor shows the linear relationship in the range of 1–40 nmol/L and reaches a detection limit of 0.3 nmol/L.？ 2015 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Millimeter-wave emission characteristics of bilayer radar-infrared compound stealth material

To achieve radar and infrared stealth, an infrared stealth layer is usually added to the radar absorbing material（RAM） of stealth aircraft. By analyzing the millimeter-wave（MMW） emissivities of three stealth materials, this Letter investigates the impact of the added infrared stealth layer on the originally ＂hot＂ MMW emission of RAM. The theoretical and measured results indicate that, compared with the monolayer RAM, the MMW emission of the bilayer material is still strong and its emissivity is reduced by 0.1–0.2 at almost every incident angle.The results partially demonstrate the feasibility of detecting stealth aircraft coated with this bilayer stealth material.