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Intrinsic properties of nickel have enabled its wide applications as an effective catalyst. In this study, nickel nanowires (Ni NWs) as electron donors for oxidized cytochrome c (Cyt c) are investigated, which are NW diameter, temperature, and pH value-dependent. The reductive and magnetic properties facilitate the Ni NWs to rapidly and conveniently reduce Cyt c in complicated biological samples. Moreover, we find that the Ni NWs combined with resonance Raman spectroscopy have specificity toward Cyt c detection in real biological samples, which is successfully used to distinguish the redox state of the released Cyt c from isolated mitochondria in apoptotic Hela cells. Moreover, rapid label-free Cyt c quantification can be achieved by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with a limit of detection of 1 nM and long concentration linear range (1 nM–1 μM). The proposed Ni NWs-based reduction approach will significantly simplify the traditional biological methods and has great potential in the application of Cyt c-related apoptotic studies.

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Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious health issue around the word. Adenovirus (Ad)-based vaccine and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA)-based vaccine have emerged as two of the most promising immunization candidates over the past few years. However, the performance of the homologous and heterologous prime-boost immunization regimens of these two viral vector-based vaccines remains unclear. In the present study, we constructed recombinant Ad and MVA expressing an Ag85B-TB10.4 fusion protein (AdH4 and MVAH4) and evaluated the impact of their different immunization regimens on the humoral and cellular immune responses. We found that the viral vector-based vaccines could generate significantly higher levels of antigen-specific antibodies, IFN-γ-producing splenocytes, CD69 + CD8 + T cells, and IFN-γ secretion when compared with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) in a mouse model. AdH4-containing immunization regimens (AdH4-AdH4, AdH4-MVAH4, and MVAH4-AdH4) induced significantly stronger antibody responses, much more IFN-γ-producing splenocytes and CD69 + CD8 + T cells, and higher levels of IFN-γ secretion when compared with the MVAH4-MVAH4 immunization regimen. The number of IFN-γ-producing splenocytes sensitive to CD8 + T-cell restricted peptides of Ag85B (9-1p and 9-2p) and Th1-related cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α) in the AdH4-MVAH4 heterologous prime-boost regimen immunization group was significantly higher than that in the other viral vector-based vaccine-and BCGimmunized groups, respectively. These results indicate that an immunization regimen involving AdH4 may have a higher capacity to induce humoral and cellular immune responses against TB in mice than that by regimens containing BCG or MVAH4 alone, and the AdH4-MVAH4 prime-boost regimen may generate an ideal protective effect.