Biosensing of pain-sensation-related chemicals and in-vivo fluorescent imaging

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25620115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Analytical chemistry
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: NAKANO Koji 九州大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (10180324)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: バイオセンサー / バニロイド / 受容体 / 電位チャンネル / 合成ペプチド / 蛍光共鳴エネルギー移動 / カプサイシン / 自己組織化膜

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By mimicking the transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor 1, two-types of potential artificial receptors that recognize and bind various vanilloid molecules were newly synthesized. The amino-acid sequences of the peptide hosts were as follows: LAMGWTNMLY HHHHHH (VB-His) and YSEILFFVQS-HHHHHH-SLAMGWTNML (VB2-His). Fluorometry spectra for VB-His obtained in the presence of vanillin and related compounds revealed that the host could recognize vanillin to give spectral responses. VB2-His, on the other hand, gave spectrum almost similar to that of the intended guest molecule, capsaicin, which made further applications difficult. Although various fluorophores were examined as alternatives, none of them gave positive outcomes ever. As a consequence one of the initial plan of capsaicin detection for applications to chemical pain sensing was unsuccessful. However, by taking advantage of quartz-crystal microbalance measurements, VB-His was successfully applied to vanillin sensing.

Free Research Field

バイオ分析化学