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Abstract
The olfactory system is a natural biosensor since its peripheral olfactory sensory
neurons (OSNs) respond to the external stimuli and transmit the signals to the olfactory
bulb (OB) where they are integrated and processed. The axonal connections from the
OSNs expressing about 1000 different types of odorant receptors are precisely organized
and sorted out onto 1800 glomeruli in the OB, from which the olfactory information
is delivered to and perceived by the central nervous system. This process is carried
out with particularly high sensitivity, specificity and rapidity, which can be used
for explosive detection. Biomimetic olfactory biosensors use various biological components
from the olfactory system as sensing elements, possessing great commercial prospects.
In this study, we utilized the genetically labeled murine M72 olfactory sensory neurons
with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as sensing components and obtained long-term
in vivo electrophysiological recordings from the M72 OSNs by implanting the microelectrode
arrays (MEAs) into the behaving mouse's OB. The electrophysiological responses showed
high reliability, reproducibility and specificity for odor detection, and particularly,
the high sensitivity for the detection of odorants that contain benzene rings. Furthermore,
our results indicated that it can detect trinitrotoluene (TNT) in liquid at a concentration
as low as 10-5M and can distinguish TNT from other chemicals with a similar structure.
Thus our study demonstrated that the in vivo biomimetic olfactory system could provide
novel approaches to enhancing the specificity and increasing working lifespan of olfactory
biosensors capable of detecting explosives.