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Using personal glucose meters and functional DNA sensors to quantify a variety of analytical targets

Nature Chemistry volume 3, pages 697–703 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Portable, low-cost and quantitative detection of a broad range of targets at home and in the field has the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. Despite many years of research, very few such devices are commercially available. Taking advantage of the wide availability and low cost of the pocket-sized personal glucose meter—used worldwide by diabetes sufferers—we demonstrate a method to use such meters to quantify non-glucose targets, ranging from a recreational drug (cocaine, 3.4 µM detection limit) to an important biological cofactor (adenosine, 18 µM detection limit), to a disease marker (interferon-gamma of tuberculosis, 2.6 nM detection limit) and a toxic metal ion (uranium, 9.1 nM detection limit). The method is based on the target-induced release of invertase from a functional-DNA–invertase conjugate. The released invertase converts sucrose into glucose, which is detectable using the meter. The approach should be easily applicable to the detection of many other targets through the use of suitable functional-DNA partners (aptamers, DNAzymes or aptazymes).

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Figure 1: Schematic of method using a PGM to detect a wide range of targets beyond glucose.
Figure 2: Design and performance of cocaine and adenosine detections using a PGM.
Figure 3: Design and performance of IFN-γ and UO22+ detections using a PGM.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-08ER64568), National Institutes of Health (ES16865) and National Science Foundation (CTS-0120978) for financial support, and L.H. Tan and H.E. Ihms for the preparation of figures and proof reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Yu Xiang & Yi Lu

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  1. Yu Xiang
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Contributions

Y.L. and Y.X. conceived and designed the experiments. Y.X. performed the experiments and analysed the data. Y.L. and Y.X. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Yi Lu.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Xiang, Y., Lu, Y. Using personal glucose meters and functional DNA sensors to quantify a variety of analytical targets. Nature Chem 3, 697–703 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1092

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