TY - JOUR A1 - Welden, Rene A1 - Jablonski, Melanie A1 - Wege, Christina A1 - Keusgen, Michael A1 - Wagner, Patrick Hermann A1 - Wagner, Torsten A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Light-Addressable Actuator-Sensor Platform for Monitoring and Manipulation of pH Gradients in Microfluidics: A Case Study with the Enzyme Penicillinase JF - Biosensors N2 - The feasibility of light-addressed detection and manipulation of pH gradients inside an electrochemical microfluidic cell was studied. Local pH changes, induced by a light-addressable electrode (LAE), were detected using a light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) with different measurement modes representing an actuator-sensor system. Biosensor functionality was examined depending on locally induced pH gradients with the help of the model enzyme penicillinase, which had been immobilized in the microfluidic channel. The surface morphology of the LAE and enzyme-functionalized LAPS was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the penicillin sensitivity of the LAPS inside the microfluidic channel was determined with regard to the analyte’s pH influence on the enzymatic reaction rate. In a final experiment, the LAE-controlled pH inhibition of the enzyme activity was monitored by the LAPS. KW - microfluidics KW - enzyme kinetics KW - actuator-sensor system KW - light-addressable electrode KW - light-addressable potentiometric sensor Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/bios11060171 SN - 2079-6374 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Selected Papers from the 1st International Electronic Conference on Biosensors (IECB 2020)" VL - 11 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bertz, Morten A1 - Molinnus, Denise A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef A1 - Homma, Takayuki T1 - Real-time monitoring of H₂O₂ sterilization on individual bacillus atrophaeus spores by optical sensing with trapping Raman spectroscopy JF - Chemosensors N2 - Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a strong oxidizer, is a commonly used sterilization agent employed during aseptic food processing and medical applications. To assess the sterilization efficiency with H₂O₂, bacterial spores are common microbial systems due to their remarkable robustness against a wide variety of decontamination strategies. Despite their widespread use, there is, however, only little information about the detailed time-resolved mechanism underlying the oxidative spore death by H₂O₂. In this work, we investigate chemical and morphological changes of individual Bacillus atrophaeus spores undergoing oxidative damage using optical sensing with trapping Raman microscopy in real-time. The time-resolved experiments reveal that spore death involves two distinct phases: (i) an initial phase dominated by the fast release of dipicolinic acid (DPA), a major spore biomarker, which indicates the rupture of the spore’s core; and (ii) the oxidation of the remaining spore material resulting in the subsequent fragmentation of the spores’ coat. Simultaneous observation of the spore morphology by optical microscopy corroborates these mechanisms. The dependence of the onset of DPA release and the time constant of spore fragmentation on H₂O₂ shows that the formation of reactive oxygen species from H₂O₂ is the rate-limiting factor of oxidative spore death. KW - DPA (dipicolinic acid) KW - sterilization KW - Bacillus atrophaeus spores KW - optical trapping KW - Raman spectroscopy KW - optical sensor setup Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11080445 SN - 2227-9040 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Biosensors and Chemical Sensors for Food and Healthcare Monitoring—Celebrating the 10th Anniversary" VL - 8 IS - 11 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haeger, Gerrit A1 - Probst, Johanna A1 - Jaeger, Karl-Erich A1 - Bongaerts, Johannes A1 - Siegert, Petra T1 - Novel aminoacylases from Streptomyces griseus DSM 40236 and their recombinant production in Streptomyces lividans JF - FEBS Open Bio N2 - Amino acid-based surfactants are valuable compounds for cosmetic formulations. The chemical synthesis of acyl-amino acids is conventionally performed by the Schotten-Baumann reaction using fatty acyl chlorides, but aminoacylases have also been investigated for use in biocatalytic synthesis with free fatty acids. Aminoacylases and their properties are diverse; they belong to different peptidase families and show differences in substrate specificity and biocatalytic potential. Bacterial aminoacylases capable of synthesis have been isolated from Burkholderia, Mycolicibacterium, and Streptomyces. Although several proteases and peptidases from S. griseus have been described, no aminoacylases from this species have been identified yet. In this study, we investigated two novel enzymes produced by S. griseus DSM 40236ᵀ . We identified and cloned the respective genes and recombinantly expressed an α-aminoacylase (EC 3.5.1.14), designated SgAA, and an ε-lysine acylase (EC 3.5.1.17), designated SgELA, in S. lividans TK23. The purified aminoacylase SgAA was biochemically characterized, focusing on its hydrolytic activity to determine temperature- and pH optima and stabilities. The aminoacylase could hydrolyze various acetyl-amino acids at the Nα -position with a broad specificity regarding the sidechain. Substrates with longer acyl chains, like lauroyl-amino acids, were hydrolyzed to a lesser extent. Purified aminoacylase SgELA specific for the hydrolysis of Nε -acetyl-L-lysine was unstable and lost its enzymatic activity upon storage for a longer period but could initially be characterized. The pH optimum of SgELA was pH 8.0. While synthesis of acyl-amino acids was not observed with SgELA, SgAA catalyzed the synthesis of lauroyl-methionine. KW - Streptomyces lividans KW - recombinant expression KW - Streptomyces griseus KW - ε-lysine acylase KW - α-aminoacylase Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.13723 SN - 2211-5463 N1 - Corresponding author: Petra Siegert VL - 13 IS - 12 SP - 2224 EP - 2238 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Engelmann, Ulrich M. A1 - Simsek, Beril A1 - Shalaby, Ahmed A1 - Krause, Hans-Joachim T1 - Key contributors to signal generation in frequency mixing magnetic detection (FMMD): an in silico study JF - Sensors N2 - Frequency mixing magnetic detection (FMMD) is a sensitive and selective technique to detect magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) serving as probes for binding biological targets. Its principle relies on the nonlinear magnetic relaxation dynamics of a particle ensemble interacting with a dual frequency external magnetic field. In order to increase its sensitivity, lower its limit of detection and overall improve its applicability in biosensing, matching combinations of external field parameters and internal particle properties are being sought to advance FMMD. In this study, we systematically probe the aforementioned interaction with coupled Néel–Brownian dynamic relaxation simulations to examine how key MNP properties as well as applied field parameters affect the frequency mixing signal generation. It is found that the core size of MNPs dominates their nonlinear magnetic response, with the strongest contributions from the largest particles. The drive field amplitude dominates the shape of the field-dependent response, whereas effective anisotropy and hydrodynamic size of the particles only weakly influence the signal generation in FMMD. For tailoring the MNP properties and parameters of the setup towards optimal FMMD signal generation, our findings suggest choosing large particles of core sizes dc > 25 nm nm with narrow size distributions (σ < 0.1) to minimize the required drive field amplitude. This allows potential improvements of FMMD as a stand-alone application, as well as advances in magnetic particle imaging, hyperthermia and magnetic immunoassays. KW - key performance indicators KW - magnetic biosensing KW - coupled Néel–Brownian relaxation dynamics KW - frequency mixing magnetic detection KW - magnetic relaxation KW - micromagnetic simulation KW - magnetic nanoparticles Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s24061945 SN - 1424-8220 N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue "Advances in Magnetic Sensors and Their Applications" VL - 24 IS - 6 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -