Monitoring tetracycline through a solid-state nanopore sensor

Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 16:6:27959. doi: 10.1038/srep27959.

Abstract

Antibiotics as emerging environmental contaminants, are widely used in both human and veterinary medicines. A solid-state nanopore sensing method is reported in this article to detect Tetracycline, which is based on Tet-off and Tet-on systems. rtTA (reverse tetracycline-controlled trans-activator) and TRE (Tetracycline Responsive Element) could bind each other under the action of Tetracycline to form one complex. When the complex passes through nanopores with 8 ~ 9 nanometers in diameter, we could detect the concentrations of Tet from 2 ng/mL to 2000 ng/mL. According to the Logistic model, we could define three growth zones of Tetracycline for rtTA and TRE. The slow growth zone is 0-39.5 ng/mL. The rapid growth zone is 39.5-529.7 ng/mL. The saturated zone is > 529.7 ng/mL. Compared to the previous methods, the nanopore sensor could detect and quantify these different kinds of molecule at the single-molecule level.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis*
  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Environmental Pollutants / analysis
  • Nanopores*
  • Tetracycline / analysis*

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Tetracycline