Nanotechnological advances of Lipid film-based biosensors for the rapid detection of biological compounds and toxicants

The exploration of lipid membranes for the construction of nanobiosensors has recently provided the opportunity to construct devices to monitor a wide range of compounds of biological interest. Nanobiosensor miniaturization using nanotechnological tools has given novel ways to attach a wide range of “receptors” in the lipid membrane. The lipids used to construct a lipid film-based device are dipalmiloylphosphatidylcholine {DPPC} and in some cases dipalmitoylphosphatidic acid (DPPA) which is an anionic lipid and is used to increase the sensitivity of detection. Most common “receptors” used in lipid film biosensors are enzymes such as urease, cholesterol oxidase, urecase, etc, antibodies such as D-dimer antibody and artificial or natural receptors such as saxitoxin, cholera toxin, calyx [4] arene phospjoryl receptor, etc. This chapter reviews and investigates the construction of nanobiosensors based on lipid membranes that are used to monitor various toxicants. It also exploits examples of applications with an emphasis on novel devices, new nanobiosensing techniques and nanotechnology-based transduction schemes. The compounds that can be detected are insecticides, toxins, hormones, dioxins, etc.