Institute of Food Science, CNR Italy, 83100 Avellino, Italy.
URT-ISA, CNR at Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Apr 6;23(7):4039. doi: 10.3390/ijms23074039.
Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are a group of small and soluble proteins present in both vertebrates and insects. They have a high level of structural stability and bind to a large spectrum of odorant molecules. In the environmental field, benzene is the most dangerous compound among the class of pollutants named BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene). It has several effects on human health and, consequently, it appears to be important to monitor its presence in the environment. Commonly, its detection requires the use of very sophisticated and time-consuming analytical techniques (GC-MS, etc.) as well as the presence of specialized personnel. Here, we present the application of an odorant-binding protein (pOBP) isolated from pigs as a molecular recognition element (MRE) for a low-energy impedenziometric biosensor for outdoor and real-time benzene detection. The obtained results show that the biosensor can detect the presence of 64 pM (5 µg/m) benzene, the limit value of exposure for human health set by the European Directive 2008/50/EC.
气味结合蛋白（OBP）是脊椎动物和昆虫中存在的一组小而可溶性的蛋白质。它们具有很高的结构稳定性，并能与大量的气味分子结合。在环境领域中，苯是 BTEX（苯、甲苯、乙苯和二甲苯）这一类污染物中最危险的化合物。它对人类健康有多种影响，因此，监测其在环境中的存在非常重要。通常，其检测需要使用非常复杂和耗时的分析技术（GC-MS 等）以及专业人员的参与。在这里，我们展示了从猪中分离出的气味结合蛋白（pOBP）作为一种分子识别元件（MRE），应用于低能量阻抗生物传感器，用于户外和实时苯检测。所得结果表明，该生物传感器可以检测到 64 pM（5 µg/m）的苯，这是 2008/50/EC 号欧洲指令为人类健康设定的暴露限值。
