title: Nanopore-based analysis of biochemical species.
abstract: Biological nanochannels or nanopores play a crucial role in basic biochemical processes in cells. Artificial nanopores possessing dimensions comparable to the size of biological molecules and mimicking the function of biological ion channels are of particular interest with respect to the design of biosensors with a sensitivity that can go down to the fM level and even to single molecule detection. Nanopore-based analysis (NPA) is currently a new research field with fascinating prospects. This review (with 118 refs.) summarizes the progress made in this field in the recent 10 years. Following an introduction into the fundamentals of NPA, we demonstrate its potential by describing selected methods for sensing (a) proteins such as streptavidin, certain antibodies, or thrombin via aptamers; (b) oligomers, larger nucleic acids, or micro-RNA; (c) small molecules, (d) ions such as K(I) which is vital to the maintenance of life, or Hg(II) which is dangerous to health. We summarize the results and discuss the merits and limitations of the various methods at last. Graphical abstractSchematic of a signal-off system and a signal-on system in nanopore analysis. The effective diameter of nanopores decreases when targets undergo certain interactions with receptors attached on the inner surface of the nanopore. Correspondingly, the current will drop on appearance of the analyte. This is referred to as a "signal-off" system. Conversely, it is called a "signal-on" system.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Nannan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Zekun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Xiaowen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Benmei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Juntao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074 China ; National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074 China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xia
keywords: Electrochemical analysis; Ion channels; Nanochannels; Nucleic acid analysis; Protein analysis; Sequencing