Two different black silicon nanostructured surfaces modified with thin gold layers were tested for analytical signal enhancement with Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). The relationship between the thicknesses of the gold layers and the analytical signal enhancement was studied. Also, effects of Ti and Ti/Pt adhesion layers underneath the gold layers on the analytical signal enhancement were tested. An enhancement factor of 7.6 × 10 7 with the excitation laser 785 nm was achieved for the tested analyte, Rhodamine 6G, and non-resonance SER spectra were recorded in a 5 s acquisition mode. Such an enhancement enables to achieve a detection limit down to 2.4 pg of Rhodamine 6G on a black silicon-based nanosurface coated with a 400-nm-thin layer of gold.

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Mitochondrial permeability transition pores (mPTPs) have become an important topic in investigating the initiation and signaling pathways involved in cardioprotection. Experimental streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (D) was shown to provide sufficient protection to the myocardium via compensatory mechanisms enabling mitochondria to produce energy under pathological conditions during the acute phase. The hypothesized involvement of mPTPs in these processes prompted us to use liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis to investigate the effects of the acute-phase D condition on the structural and regulatory components of this multienzyme complex and the changes caused by compensation events. We detected ADT1, ATP5H, ATPA, and ATPB as the most abundant mPTP proteins. The between-group differences in protein abundance of the mPTP complex as a whole were significantly upregulated in the D group when compared with the control (C) group (p = 0.0106), but fold changes in individual protein expression levels were not significantly altered except for ATP5H, ATP5J, and KCRS. However, none of them passed the criterion of a 1.5-fold change in differential expression for biologically meaningful change. Visualization of the (dis-)similarity between the C and D groups and pairwise correlations revealed different patterns of protein interactions under the C and D conditions which may be linked to endogenous protective processes, of which beneficial effects on myocardial function were previously confirmed.

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The article describes the multifunctionality of a novel black silicon (BS) nanostructured surface covered with a thin layer of noble metal prepared in the a microfluidic channel. It is focused on the separation properties of the BS substrate with direct detection of the separated analytes utilizing surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The same BS substrate is providing the stationary phase and a surface enhancement of the Raman signal that has been measured previously to be around 10. As tested molecules, the common components of explosives 1,3 dinitrobenzene and 2,4 dinitrotoluene were used. The separation of selected molecules was achieved with the dried toluene as a mobile phase in a 25 micrometers deep, 5 mm wide, and 4 cm long microfluidic channel during the 2 min.