Pore-forming Compounds as Signal Transduction Elements for Highly Sensitive Biosensing

Abstract

119 IntroductionTranslocation of ions and small molecules across barriers of cellular membrane, lipid bilayers and solid supports is elicited by biological and artificial pore-forming compounds, which comprise protein, peptide and artificial molecules. Application of nanopores to biosensing holds much promise in developing highly sensitive methods because of their inherent ability of signal transduction and amplification.Nanopore-forming compounds, such as receptor ion-channels, channel-forming peptides and synthetic channels embedded in spherical and planar lipid bilayers ( Fig. 1), have been exploited as sensing elements for the development of biosensors and their uses for biosensing have been reviewed extensively. 1-13Receptor ionchannels, such as glutamate receptor ion channels, possess a 2014 © The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry Pharmacy and Life Science, 1432-1 Horinouchi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0392, Japan Pore-forming compounds are attracting much attention due to the signal transduction ability for the development of highly sensitive biosensing. In this review, we describe an overview of the recent advances made by our group in the design of molecular sensing interfaces of spherical and planar lipid bilayers and natural bilayers. The potential uses of poreforming compounds, such as gramicidin and MCM-41, in lipid bilayers and natural glutamate receptor channels in biomembrane are presented.