Detection of chemical substances is essential for living
a healthy
and cultural life in the modern world. One type of chemical sensing
technology, biosensing, uses biological components with molecular
recognition abilities, enabling a broad spectrum of sensing targets.
Short single-stranded nucleic acids called aptamers are one of the
biological molecules used in biosensing, and sensing methods combining
aptamers and hydrogels have been researched for simple sensing applications.
In this research, we propose a hydrogel-based biosensor that uses
aptamer recognition and DNA-driven swelling hydrogels for the rapid
detection of histamine. Aptamer recognition and DNA-driven swelling
hydrogels are directly linked via DNA molecular reactions, enabling
rapid sensing. We selected histamine, a major food poisoning toxin,
as our sensing target and detected the existence of histamine within
10 min with significance. Because this sensing foundation uses aptamers,
which have a vast library of targets, we believe this system can be
expanded to various targets, broadening the application of hydrogel-based
biosensors.