title: A quartz crystal microbalance sensor for endotoxin assay by monitoring limulus amebocyte lysate protease reaction.
abstract: Endotoxin is able to trigger strong innate immune responses by interacting with specific receptors on immune cells. Therefore, accurate and rapid detection of endotoxin is of primary importance. In this study, endotoxin induced viscosity variation of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) reagent is monitored by a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor with enhanced signal. Based on the analysis of the relationship between endotoxin concentration and QCM frequency shift with time, an effective sensing strategy is developed for endotoxin assay, which shows excellent sensitivity and specificity in the linear detection range from 0.005 to 10 EU mL-1. Moreover, this QCM sensor could be reused after a simple regeneration procedure. Therefore, it has potential practical utility for endotoxin determination in various applications.
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China.
authors.forename: Lianqun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China. Electronic address: tangyg@sibet.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yuguo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215163, PR China. Electronic address: miaopeng@sibet.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Miao
mesh_terms: D004731:Endotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D008033:Limulus Test; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D058525:Quartz Crystal Microbalance Techniques
chemical_list: D004731:Endotoxins; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases
keywords: Endotoxin; Fibrinogen; Limulus amebocyte lysate; Quartz crystal microbalance; Regeneration