Antimicrobial Peptides for Detection and Diagnostic Assays - Designing Receptors for the Next Generation of Biosensors - page 83

Antimicrobial Peptides for Detection
and Diagnostic Assays

Lisa C. Shriver-Lake, Stella H. North, Scott N. Dean,
and Chris R. Taitt

Abstract Considered gold standards for biodetection, immunoassays and nucleic
acid-based assays are sensitive, highly selective, and well characterized. However,
they are capable of detecting only those targets for which specific reagents (such as
antibodies or nucleic acid primers or probes) have been developed. Furthermore,
new, emerging, and unexpected pathogens may not be detected. To address the
challenge of detecting both known and unknown microbes, assays utilizing antimi-
crobial peptides (AMPs) are being developed for integration into both biosensors
and high-throughput platforms. AMP-based detection represents a new paradigm in
sensing—namely, the ability to screen a sample for the presence of many different
microbes without target-specific reagents, and to provide broad classification infor-
mation on the species detected.

Keywords Antimicrobial peptide, Biosensor, Immobilization, Semi-selective

binding

Contents

1 Conventional Approach for Pathogen Detection ........................................... 86
1.1 New Paradigm for Pathogen Detection ............................................... 87
2 AMPs as Recognition Molecules ............................................................ 87
3 Broad-Based Sensing Using AMPs . . ....................................................... 90
3.1 Solution-Phase Detection Using AMPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

L.C. Shriver-Lake, S.H. North, and C.R. Taitt ( * )
Center for Bio/Molecular Science & Engineering, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington,
DC 20375, USA
e-mail: [e-mail]
S.N. Dean
NRL/NREIP Intern Resident at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA