The prognostic role of inflammation index like neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial. We conduct a meta‐analysis to determine the predictable value of NLR in the clinical outcome of CRC patients. The analysis was carried out based on the data from 16 studies (19 cohorts) to evaluate the association between NLR and overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS) in patients with CRC. In addition, the relationship between NLR and clinicopathological parameters was assessed. Hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as the effect size estimate. Our analysis results indicated that elevated pretreatment NLR predicted poorer OS (HR: 1.813, 95% CI: 1.499–2.193) and PFS (HR: 2.102, 95% CI: 1.554–2.843) in patients with CRC. Increased NLR is also significantly associated with the poorer differentiation of the tumor (OR: 1.574, 95% CI: 1.226–2.022) and higher carcino‐embryonie antigen (CEA) level (OR: 1.493, 95% CI: 1.308–1.705). By these results, we conclude that NLR gains a prognostic value for patients with CRC. NLR should be monitored in CRC patients for rational stratification of the patients and adjusting the treatment strategy.

Inorganic nanomaterials that mimic enzymes are fascinating as they potentially have improved properties relative to native enzymes, such as greater resistance to extremes of pH and temperature and lower sensitivity to proteases. Although many artificial enzymes have been investigated, searching for highly-efficient and stable catalysts is still of great interest. In this paper, we first demonstrated that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-stabilized MnO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) exhibited highly peroxidase-, oxidase-, and catalase-like activities. The activities of the BSA-MnO₂ NPs were evaluated using the typical horseradish peroxidase (HRP) substrates o-phenylenediamine (OPD) and 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of either hydrogen peroxide or dissolved oxygen. These small-sized BSA-MnO₂ NPs with good dispersion, solubility and biocompatibility exhibited typical Michaelis–Menten kinetics and high affinity for H₂O₂, OPD and TMB, indicating that BSA-MnO₂ NPs can be used as satisfactory enzyme mimics. Based on these findings, BSA-MnO₂ NPs were used as colorimetric immunoassay tags for the detection of goat anti-human IgG in place of HRP. The colorimetric immunoassay using BSA-MnO₂ NPs has the advantages of being fast, robust, inexpensive, easily prepared and with no HRP and H₂O₂ being needed. These water-soluble BSA-MnO₂ NPs may have promising potential applications in biotechnology, bioassays, and biomedicine.

Carbon nanodots (C-Dots) as a new form of carbonaceous nanomaterials have aroused much interest and intensive research due to their inspiring properties. Compared to traditional semiconductor quantum dots, these newly emergent nanodots possess a number of advantageous characteristics, among which low-toxicity is particularly fascinating. More and more research into C-Dots have focused on synthesis methods and biology-related applications. Microwave-assisted approaches have attracted attention because microwave treatment can provide intensive and efficient energy, and as a consequence shorten the reaction time. In this article, we designed a “green”, rapid, eco-friendly and waste-reused approach to synthesize fluorescent and water-soluble C-Dots from eggshell membrane (ESM) ashes according to a microwave-assisted process. ESM selected as the carbon source was a common protein-rich waste in daily life and can be obtained easily and cheaply. The C-Dots from our method showed the maximal fluorescence emission peak at 450 nm and the fluorescence quantum yield was about 14%. We further designed a sensitive probe for glutathione based on the fluorescence turn off and on of the C-Dots–Cu²⁺ system, which showed a linear range of 0.5–80 μmol L⁻¹ and detection limit of 0.48 μmol L⁻¹. In general, the C-Dots prepared briefly and inexpensively from ESM revealed excellent fluorescent property with promising potential for applications such as sample detection and biotechnology.

Graphene sheets decorated with SnO₂ nanoparticles were prepared through a facile hydrothermal-assisted in situ synthesis route. According to the XPS, XRD, FESEM and TEM analysis, rutile SnO₂ nanocrystals were exclusively deposited on graphene sheets with high density and high uniformity to form layered composite sheets. Propanal, a common volatile organic compound, was selected as a model to investigate the cataluminescence (CTL) sensing properties of the SnO₂ /graphene composite in this paper. It was found that the strong CTL emission could be generated due to the catalyzing oxidization of propanal on the surface of SnO₂ /graphene composite and this composite was an efficient sensing material for propanal. We further studied the analytical characteristics of the CTL sensor based on SnO₂ /graphene composite sensing material for propanal under the optimal experimental conditions. The linear range of the propanal gas sensor was 1.34–266.67 μg mL⁻¹ (r = 0.9987), over two orders of magnitude, and the detection limit was 0.3 μg mL⁻¹(S/N = 3).