An Antibody-Based Molecular Switch for Continuous Biosensing

Abstract

We present a generalizable approach for designing biosensors that can continuously detect specific biomarkers in real time and without sample preparation. This is achieved by converting existing antibodies into target-responsive "antibody-switches" that enable continuous optical biosensing. To engineer these switches, antibodies are linked to a molecular competitor through a DNA scaffold, such that competitive target binding induces scaffold switching and fluorescent signaling of changing target concentrations. As a demonstration, we designed antibody-switches that achieve rapid, sample-preparation-free sensing of digoxigenin and cortisol in undiluted plasma. We showed that, by substituting the molecular competitor, we can further modulate the sensitivity of our cortisol switch to achieve detection at concentrations spanning 3.3 nM to 3.3 mM. Finally, we integrated this switch with a fiber-optic sensor to achieve hours-long continuous sensing of cortisol in buffer with <5-minute time resolution. We believe this modular sensor design can enable continuous biosensor development for many biomarkers.