New oligonucleotide analogues with triazole internucleotide linkages were synthesized, and their hybridization properties were studied. The analogues demonstrated DNA binding affinities similar to those of unmodified oligonucleotides. The modification was shown to protect the oligonucleotides from nuclease hydrolysis. The modified oligonucleotides were tested as PCR primers. Modifications remote from the 3'-terminus were tolerated by polymerases. Our results suggest that these new oligonucleotide analogues are among the most promising triazole DNA mimics characterized to date.
Carbon dots have great potential to be utilised as an optical sensing probe due to its unique photoluminescence and less toxic properties. This work reports a simple and novel synthesis method of carbon dots via direct acid hydrolysis of bovine serum albumin protein in a one-pot approach. Optimisation of the important synthetic parameters has been performed which consists of temperature effect, acid to protein ratio and kinetics of reaction. Higher temperature has promoted better yield with shorter reaction time. The carbon dots obtained shows a strong emission at the wavelength of 400 nm with an optimum excitation of 305 nm. The potential of the carbon dots as optical sensing probe has been investigated on with different cations that are of environmental and health concern. The fluorescence of the carbon dots was significantly quenched particularly by lead (II) ions in a selective manner. Further analytical study has been performed to leverage the performance of the carbon dots for lead (II) ions sensing using the standard Stern-Volmer relationship. The sensing probe has a dynamic linear range up to 6.0 mM with a Stern-Volmer constant of 605.99 M(-1) and a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.05 μM. The probe performance was highly repeatable with a standard deviation below 3.0%. The probe suggested in this study demonstrates the potential of a more economical and greener approach that uses protein based carbon dots for sensing of heavy metal ions.