BIOSENSORS: UNIQUE TOOLS IN PHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Jean-Michel KAUFFMANN*

*Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institut de Pharmacie, Campus Plaine CP 205\6, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.

Summary:
Biosensors are, by definition, sensing devices comprising a biological component (enzyme, antibody, animal or plant cell, oligonucleotide, lipid, microorganisms, etc.) intimately connected to a physical transducer (electrode, optical fiber, vibrating quartz, etc.). This dual configuration permits the determination of a great variety of compounds of pharmaceutical interest and it allows drug interaction studies with the immobilized bicomponent. Ideally, biosensors should be readily implemented and allow low reagent and energy consumption. Enzyme-based biosensors can be applied in the pharmaceutical industry for bioprocess control (in bioreactors, etc.), by following in real time the formation or consumption of analytes of interest such as glucose, glutamate, amino acids, lactate, etc. Affinity biosensors are suitable for high throughput screening of bioprocess-produced antibodies and for highly selective and sensitive immunoassays. Enzyme-based bisensors are especially well suited as home testing devices for glucose, lactate, uric acid, and cholesterol or in hospitals for bedside testing, emergency control, in surgery (e.g. lactate monitoring), r urea monitoring during dialysis treatments, etc. In clinical laboratories miniaturized arrays of biosensors are dedicated to the control of many physiological parameters (glucose, urea, uric acid, creatinine, acetylcholine.) and for a variety of drug analysis by immunoassays with the antibody or the antigen immobilized onto the transducer. Current research efforts in the biosensor field are oriented towards the use of living cells immobilized in biochips. This configuration comprises several different microelectronic sensors and biosensors sensitive e.g. to pH, temperature, impedance, oxygen, glucose, for a multiparametric cellular monitoring for advanced stages of drug screening. Of equal new interest are the oligonucleotide-immobilized biosensors for interactions studies between the surface linked DNA and the target drug or for hybridisation studies. This short review summarizes the state of the art in biosensors dedicated to applications of pharmaceutical and biomedical interests.