Polyhedral molecules are appealing for their eye-catching architecture and distinctive chemistry. Perfluorination of such, often greatly strained, compounds is a momentous challenge. It drastically changes the electron distribution, structure and properties. Notably, small high-symmetry perfluoropolyhedranes feature a centrally located, star-shaped low-energy unoccupied molecular orbital that can host an extra electron within the polyhedral frame, thus producing a radical anion, without loss of symmetry. This predicted electron-hosting capacity was definitively established for perfluorocubane, the first perfluorinated Platonic polyhedrane to be isolated pure. Hosting atoms, molecules, or ions in such \"cage\" structures is, however, all but forthright, if not illusionary, offering no easy access to supramolecular constructs. While adamantane and cubane have fostered numerous applications in materials science, medicine, and biology, specific uses for their perfluorinated counterparts remain to be established. Some aspects of highly fluorinated carbon allotropes, such as fullerenes and graphite, are briefly mentioned for context.

Nucleic acid aptamers are ssDNA or ssRNA fragments that specifically recognize targets. However, the pharmacodynamic properties of natural aptamers consisting of 4 naturally occurring nucleosides (A, G, C, T/U) are generally restricted for inferior binding affinity than the cognate antibodies. The development of high-affinity modification strategies has attracted extensive attention in aptamer applications. Chemically modified aptamers with stable three-dimensional shapes can tightly interact with the target proteins via enhanced non-covalent bonding, possibly resulting in hundreds of affinity enhancements. This review overviewed high-affinity modification strategies used in aptamers, including nucleobase modifications, fluorine modifications (2\'-fluoro nucleic acid, 2\'-fluoro arabino nucleic acid, 2\',2\'-difluoro nucleic acid), structural alteration modifications (locked nucleic acid, unlocked nucleic acid), phosphate modifications (phosphorothioates, phosphorodithioates), and extended alphabets. The review emphasized how these high-affinity modifications function in effect as the interactions with target proteins, thereby refining the pharmacodynamic properties of aptamers.

Recently, microRNAs (miRNA) captured the interest as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, with their potential for early indication of numerous pathologies. Since miRNA is a short, non-coding RNA sequence, the sensitivity and selectivity of their detection remain a cornerstone of scientific research. As such, methods based on nanomaterials have emerged in hopes of developing fast and facile approaches. At the core of the detection method based on nanotechnology lie nanoprobes and other functionalized nanomaterials. Since miRNA sensing and detection are generally rooted in the capture of target miRNA with the complementary sequence of oligonucleotides, the sequence needs to be attached to the nanomaterial with a specific conjugation strategy. As each nanomaterial has its unique properties, and each conjugation approach presents its drawbacks and advantages, this review offers a condensed overview of the conjugation approaches in nanomaterial-based miRNA sensing. Starting with a brief recapitulation of specific properties and characteristics of nanomaterials that can be used as a substrate, the focus is then centered on covalent and non-covalent bonding chemistry, leading to the functionalization of the nanomaterials, which are the most commonly used in miRNA sensing methods.

In this study we propose to coin the term Wolfium bond (WfB) to refer to a net attractive force (noncovalent interaction) between any element of group 6 and electron donor atoms (neutral molecules or anions) and to differentiate it from a coordination bond (metal-ligand interaction). We provide evidence of the existence of this interaction by inspecting the X-ray crystal structure of proteins containing Molybdopterin and Tungstopterin cofactors from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The plausible biological role of the interaction as well as its physical nature (antibonding Wf-Ligand orbital involved) are also analyzed by means of ab initio calculations (RI-MP2/def2-TZVP level of theory), Atoms in Molecules (AIM), Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) and Noncovalent Interactions plot (NCIplot) analyses.

The term spodium (Sp) bond is proposed to refer to a net attractive interaction between any element of Group 12 and electron-rich atoms (Lewis bases or anions). These noncovalent interactions are markedly different from coordination bonds (antibonding Sp-ligand orbital involved). Evidence is provided for the existence of this interaction by calculations at the RI-MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory, atoms-in-molecules, and natural bond orbital analyses and by examining solid-state structures in the Cambridge Structure Database.

Both defatted peanut flour (DPF) and peanut protein isolate (PPI) are widely used to prepare peanut protein hydrolysates. To compare their enzymatic hydrolysis efficiencies, DPF and PPI were hydrolysed by Alcalase, Neutrase, Papain, Protamex and Flavorzyme. Alcalase and Flavorzyme were found to be the most efficient proteases to hydrolyse both DPF and PPI. The efficiency was comparable to each other when using Alcalase, while PPI was hydrolysed less efficiently than DPF when using Flavorzyme. Analysis of changes in the protein solubility, subunit and conformation, and amino acid composition of DPF, PPI and their Flavorzyme hydrolysis residues indicated that the PPI preparation process had minimal effect on it, but peptide aggregation via non-covalent bonding (including hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds) during hydrolysis and/or thermal treatment after hydrolysis were likely responsible for the reduced hydrolysis efficiency of PPI by Flavorzyme.