Issue 16, 2018

Translating molecular detections into a simple temperature test using a target-responsive smart thermometer

Abstract

While it has been well recognized that affordable and pocket-size devices play a major role in environmental monitoring, food safety and medical diagnostics, it often takes a tremendous amount of resources to develop such devices. Devices that have been developed are often dedicated devices that can detect only one or a few targets. To overcome these limitations, we herein report a novel target-responsive smart thermometer for translating molecular detection into a temperature test. The sensor system consists of a functional DNA–phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzyme conjugate, a liposome-encapsulated NIR dye, and a thermometer interfaced with a NIR-laser device. The sensing principle is based on the target-induced release of PLA2 from the DNA–enzyme conjugate, which catalyzes the hydrolysis of liposome to release the NIR dye inside the liposome. Upon NIR-laser irradiation, the released dye can convert excitation energy into heat, producing a temperature increase in solution, which is detectable using a thermometer. Considering the low cost and facile incorporation of the system with suitable functional DNAs to recognize many targets, the system demonstrated here makes the thermometer an affordable and pocket-size meter for the detection and quantification of a wide range of targets.

Graphical abstract: Translating molecular detections into a simple temperature test using a target-responsive smart thermometer

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
15 дек 2017
Accepted
07 мар 2018
First published
07 мар 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 3906-3910

Translating molecular detections into a simple temperature test using a target-responsive smart thermometer

J. Zhang, H. Xing and Y. Lu, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 3906 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC05325H

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