Development of a liquid crystal-based α-glucosidase assay to detect anti-diabetic drugs

Liquid Crystal Biosensors: Principles, Structure and Applications

Liquid crystals (LCs) have been widely used as sensitive elements to construct LC biosensors based on the principle that specific bonding events between biomolecules can affect the orientation of LC molecules. On the basis of the sensing interface of LC molecules, LC biosensors can be classified into three types: LC-solid interface sensing platforms, LC-aqueous interface sensing platforms, and LC-droplet interface sensing platforms. In addition, as a signal amplification method, the combination of LCs and whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microcavities can provide higher detection sensitivity due to the extremely high quality factor and the small mode volume of the WGM optical microcavity, which enhances the interaction between the light field and biotargets. In this review, we present an overview of the basic principles, the structure, and the applications of LC biosensors. We discuss the important properties of LC and the principle of LC biosensors. The different geometries of LCs in the biosensing systems as well as their applications in the biological detection are then described. The fabrication and the application of the LC-based WGM microcavity optofluidic sensor in the biological detection are also introduced. Finally, challenges and potential research opportunities in the development of LC-based biosensors are discussed.

α-Glucosidase-Mediated Glucometer Readout for Portable Monitoring of Acarbose and Migliol

The α-glucosidase inhibitor is regarded as one of the most important drugs for the treatment of diabetes, which can control postprandial blood glucose levels via prolonging the carbohydrate digestion time and retarding the carbohydrates’ absorption. The present work aims to establish a facile bioanalytical method, based on α-glucosidase catalyzing the hydrolysis of 2-O-alpha-D-Glucopyranosyl-L-ascorbic acid (AA-2G), for the quantification of acarbose and migliol using a personal glucose meter (PGM). The hydrolysis products (ascorbic acid and glucose) can trigger the reduction of K3[Fe(CN)6] to K4[Fe(CN)6] in the glucose test strips, which results in the formation of the electron, which can be measured by PGM. Thus, ascorbic acid and glucose can be simultaneously measured by a simplified and miniaturized PGM method. However, the products produced by the hydrolysis of AA-2G will be decreased after the addition of acarbose or migliol to inhibit the activity of α-glucosidase, thereby resulting in a decreased PGM readout. After being incubated with α-glucosidase for 3.0 min and enzymatic reaction for 5.0 min, the quantitative detection of acarbose and migliol can be achieved within the ranges of 1.0–30.0 μM with the limit of detection of 0.33 μM and 3.0–33.3 μM with the limit of detection of 1.0 μM, respectively. IC50 values for acarbose and migliol are calculated to be 10.0 μM and 16.0 μM, respectively. The recoveries of the acarbose and migliol spiked with three different concentrations (final concentrations of 10.0, 20.0, and 30.0 μM) in human serum sample are in the ranges of 89.6–114.5% and 93.9–106.5%, respectively. These results demonstrate that the developed PGM method may be useful in future studies on therapeutic monitoring of acarbose and migliol.