Piezo electric sensor for endocrine-disrupting chemicals using receptor-co-factor interaction

Anal Sci. 2003 Oct;19(10):1355-7. doi: 10.2116/analsci.19.1355.

Abstract

In vitro screening assays are useful techniques for the determination of receptor-mediated activities in environmental samples. In order to define whether environmental chemicals act as an agonist or antagonist to the human estrogen receptor (hER), we have constructed a biosensor based on ligand-inducible interactions between hER and relative proteins on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The his-tagged proteins, which were expressed in E. coli by recombinant DNA technology, were immobilized on an Au-electrode with Ni(II)-mediated chemisorption using the histidine tag and thiol-modified iminodiacetic acid. The resonance-frequency change of the protein-modified electrode was caused by association or dissociation with the hER relative proteins on the surface in the presence of estrogen. These results suggest that this sensor is applicable as a large-scale screening tool for estrogenic compounds.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Electrodes
  • Environmental Pollutants / analysis*
  • Histone Acetyltransferases
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 1
  • Protein Binding
  • Receptors, Estrogen / agonists
  • Receptors, Estrogen / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Receptors, Estrogen / chemistry*
  • Transcription Factors / chemistry

Substances

  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Ligands
  • Receptors, Estrogen
  • Transcription Factors
  • Histone Acetyltransferases
  • NCOA1 protein, human
  • Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 1