Biomolecular Filters for Improved Separation of Output Signals in Enzyme Logic Systems Applied to Biomedical Analysis

TL;DR

This paper introduces biomolecular filters in enzyme logic systems to enhance the separation of output signals, improving biomedical analysis of physiological conditions like liver injury and trauma.

Contribution

It presents a novel enzymatic signal processing system with built-in filtering to better discriminate between normal and pathological biomarker levels.

Findings

Enhanced output signal discrimination in enzyme logic systems.

Effective separation of low and high biomarker concentrations.

Potential application in biomedical diagnostics.

Abstract

Biomolecular logic systems processing biochemical input signals and producing "digital" outputs in the form of YES/NO were developed for analysis of physiological conditions characteristic of liver injury, soft tissue injury and abdominal trauma. Injury biomarkers were used as input signals for activating the logic systems. Their normal physiological concentrations were defined as logic-0 level, while their pathologically elevated concentrations were defined as logic-1 values. Since the input concentrations applied as logic 0 and 1 values were not sufficiently different, the output signals being at low and high values (0, 1 outputs) were separated with a short gap making their discrimination difficult. Coupled enzymatic reactions functioning as a biomolecular signal processing system with a built-in filter property were developed. The filter process involves a partial back-conversion of the optical-output-signal-yielding product, but only at its low concentrations, thus allowing the proper discrimination between 0 and 1 output values.