Nanopore analysis of salvianolic acids in herbal medicines

Abstract

Natural herbs, which contain pharmacologically active compounds, have been used historically as medicines. Conventionally, the analysis of chemical components in herbal medicines requires time-consuming sample separation and state-of-the-art analytical instruments. Nanopore, a versatile single molecule sensor, might be suitable to identify bioactive compounds in natural herbs. Here, a phenylboronic acid appended Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) nanopore is used as a sensor for herbal medicines. A variety of bioactive compounds based on salvianolic acids, including caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid, protocatechualdehyde, salvianic acid A, rosmarinic acid, lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid A and salvianolic acid B are identified. Using a custom machine learning algorithm, analyte identification is performed with an accuracy of 99.0%. This sensing principle is further used with natural herbs such as Salvia miltiorrhiza, Rosemary and Prunella vulgaris. No complex sample separation or purification is required and the sensing device is highly portable.

Nanopore-based glycan sequencing: state of the art and future prospects

“…152 Heparin, one of the most successful anticoagulant drugs, has drawn global attention due to the heparin contamination crisis in 2007, which suggested the importance of precise glycan structure elucidation for the quality and safety of glycan-based drugs. 153 Actually, quality analysis of heparin and other drugs using nanopores has been reported in recent years, 36,154 which indicates its potential in drug quality control. The nanopore-based glycan sequencer will be widely applied to the quality control of glycan-based drugs.…”