Diagnostic aptamer selection for the beetle pheromone verbenone and its derivatives

各种甲虫种类的侵扰对不列颠哥伦比亚省乃至整个加拿大的林业产生了非常负面的经济和生态影响。不列颠哥伦比亚省本拿比的一家生物技术公司，eSenso生物技术公司，对开发各种电子传感平台来监测甲虫信息素，在这个具体的例子中是化合物马甲酮。马鞭草酮已被批准为树皮甲虫抗聚集信息素；这一点很重要，因为树皮甲虫和山松甲虫是极具经济破坏性的害虫。马鞭草酮可以有效地减少甲虫对松林的攻击，并且这种处理已经成功地在多种类型的树木上进行了处理-所获得的结果表明，效果既依赖于树木类型，也依赖于马鞭草酮剂量。eSenso正在开发许多不同的马鞭草酮和相关化合物的检测平台，但到目前为止，还没有一个利用高效、经济和强大的平台，其中包括“DNA适体”（抗体样，分析结合的DNA序列，从随机序列DNA文库中分离出来，使用强大的方法称为“体外选择”或“SELEX”）。我在西蒙弗雷泽大学的研究项目长期专注于SELEX方法，多年来，我们不仅分离和表征了大量高度多样化的DNA和RNA适配体和催化剂，而且我们发明了一种独特的方法，用于在电化学传感装置中利用这些适配体来检测目标抗原/分析物。这是我们独特的sfu专利方法，用于设计包含DNA适体的高灵敏度片上电化学传感器，称为“脱氧核糖传感器”或“DORS”。eSenso公司找到我们(1)获得针对马鞭草酮的敏感和高特异性DNA适配体，(2)设计包含这些适配体的DORS设备，用于马鞭草酮和相关化合物的传感和定量。这一初步的研究互动有望使埃森索生物技术公司和我的实验室之间开展富有成效的长期合作。

Infestation by a variety of beetle species has very negative economic and ecological impacts on the forestry industry of British Columbia as well as of Canada as a whole. A Burnaby, B.C., biotechnology company, eSenso Biotech, is interested in developing a variety of electronic sensing platforms for monitoring beetle pheromones, in this specific case the compound verbenone. Verbenone has been approved as a bark beetle anti-aggregation pheromone; this is important because bark beetles and mountain pine beetles are economically extremely damaging pests. Verbenone can be used with high efficacy in reducing attacks on pine forests by beetles, and this kind of treatment has been performed successfully on a variety of types of trees-- the results obtained indicating efficacies that are both tree-type- and verbenone dose-dependent. eSenso has under development a number of different detection platforms for verbenone and related compounds, but none so far that make use of the highly efficient, economic, and robust platforms that incorporate "DNA aptamers" (antibody-like, analyte-binding DNA sequences that are isolated from random-sequence DNA libraries using a powerful methodology known as "in vitro selection" or "SELEX"). My research program at Simon Fraser University has long specialized in SELEX methodologies, and we have over the years not only isolated and characterized a large number of highly diverse DNA and RNA aptamers and catalysts, but we have invented a unique approach for utilizing such aptamers in electrochemical sensing devices for the targeted antigens/analytes in question. This, our unique and SFU-patented methodology for designing highly sensitive, on-chip, electrochemical sensors incorporating DNA aptamers is known as "Deoxyribosensors" or "DORS". The eSenso company approached us to (1) obtain sensitive and high specificity DNA aptamer(s) against verbenone, and (2) design DORS devices incorporating such aptamers for sensing and quantitation of verbenone and related compounds. This initial research interaction is expected to lead to a fruitful long-term collaboration between eSenso Biotech and my laboratory.