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Recently, there has been an outburst of research on engineered cell–material interfaces driven by nanotechnology and its tools and techniques. This tutorial review begins by providing a brief introduction to nanostructured materials, followed by an overview of the wealth of nanoscale fabrication and analysis tools available for their development. This background serves as the basis for a discussion of early breakthroughs and recent key developments in the endeavour to develop nanostructured materials as smart interfaces for fundamental cellular studies, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The review covers three major aspects of nanostructured interfaces – nanotopographical control, dynamic behaviour and intracellular manipulation and sensing – where efforts are continuously being made to further understand cell function and provide new ways to control cell behaviour. A critical reflection of the current status and future challenges are discussed as a conclusion to the review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The kynurenine metabolite is associated with many diseases and disorders, ranging from diabetes and sepsis to more recently COVID-19. Here we report a fluorescence-based assay for the detection of kynurenine in urine using a specific chemosensor, 3-formyl-4-(ethylthio)-7-(diethylamino)-coumarin. The assay produces a linear response at clinically relevant ranges (1–20 μM), with a limit of detection of 0.7 μM. The average standard addition recoveries of kynurenine in synthetic urine samples are near to 100%, and the relative standard deviation values are less than 8%. The established fluorescence assay for quantitative analysis of kynurenine in urine is facile, sensitive and accurate and holds great potential for low-cost and high-throughput analysis of kynurenine in clinical laboratory settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reported herein is a switchable surface that relies on electrically-induced conformational changes within surface-grafted arginine-glycine- aspartate (RGD) oligopeptides as the means of modulating cell adhesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycans – simple or complex carbohydrates – play key roles as recognition determinants and modulators of numerous physiological and pathological processes. Thus, many biotechnological, diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities abound for molecular recognition entities that can bind glycans with high selectivity and affinity. This review begins with an overview of the current biologically and synthetically derived glycan-binding scaffolds that include antibodies, lectins, aptamers and boronic acid-based entities. It is followed by a more detailed discussion on various aspects of their generation, structure and recognition properties. It serves as the basis for highlighting recent key developments and technical challenges that must be overcome in order to fully deal with the specific recognition of a highly diverse and complex range of glycan structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of a molecularly tailored surface functionalised with a saccharide binding motif, a phenyl boronic acid derivative is reported. The functionalised surface facilitated the transfer of electrons, via unique electronic interactions mediated by the presence of the boronic acid, from a macrophage cell line. This is the first example of eukaryotic cellular-electrical communication mediated by the binding of cells via their cell–surface saccharide units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, electrically switchable mixed self-assembled monolayers based on oligopeptides have been developed and investigated for their suitability in achieving control over biomolecular interactions in the presence of complex biological conditions. Our model system, a biotinylated oligopeptide tethered to gold within a background of tri(ethylene glycol) undecanethiol, is ubiquitous in both switching specific protein interactions in highly fouling media while still offering the non-specific protein-resistance to the surface. Furthermore, the work demonstrated that the performance of the switching on the electro-switchable oligopeptide is sensitive to the characteristics of the media, and in particular, its protein concentration and buffer composition, and thus such aspects should be considered and addressed to assure maximum switching performance. This study lays the foundation for developing more realistic dynamic extracellular matrix models and is certainly applicable in a wide variety of biological and medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saccharides – a versatile class of biologically important molecules – are involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, but their detection and quantification is challenging. Herein, surface plasmon resonance and self-assembled monolayers on gold generated from bis-boronic acid bearing a thioctic acid moiety, whose intramolecular distance between the boronic acid moieties is well defined, are shown to detect d-glucose with high selectivity, demonstrating a higher affinity than other saccharides probed, namely d-galactose, d-fructose and d-mannose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bis-boronic acid modified electrode for the sensitive and selective determination of glucose concentrations has been developed. The electrochemical characteristics of the sensor with added saccharides were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The bis-boronic acid modified electrode was both sensitive and selective for glucose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type III-B first generation [3]rotaxane and second generation [4]rotaxane dendrimers have been synthesized via (1) a modified copper-catalyzed alkyne–azide cycloaddition (CuAAC), (2) Glaser–Hay's acetylenic oxidative homo-coupling, and (3) amide formation. The dendron does not reveal obvious cytotoxicities in L929 fibroblast cells. The rotaxane dendrimers can capture ammonia and are switchable both in solution and on surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction for 'The challenges of glycan recognition with natural and artificial receptors' by Stefano Tommasone et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 2019, 48, 5488–5505. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]