Artificial molecular communication platform using DNA molecules as information carriers

Abstract

The application discloses an artificial molecular communication platform taking DNA molecules as information carriers, which comprises a signal sending end, a DNA molecular communication channel and a signal receiving end, wherein a DNA information molecule transmitter of the electric control type located at the signal sending end converts macroscopic electric signals into microscopic DNA signals, the DNA molecules with information are propagated to the signal receiving end through the free diffusion mode in the DNA molecular communication channel, and a DNA information molecule receiver located at the signal receiving end converts the received microscopic DNA information molecules into macroscopic electric signals and outputs the same.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of artificial molecular communication, and particularly relates to an artificial molecular communication platform taking DNA molecules as information carriers in a nanomachine network, which can be applied to nanomachine communication in a liquid environment and realizes information transmission between nanomachines. BACKGROUND

[0002] Due to the importance of artificial molecular communication, since it was proposed, it has been closely followed by scholars in the relevant field, and has developed rapidly, and has become a very important research direction in nanonetwork communication. However, the current research on artificial molecular communication mainly focuses on the theoretical aspect, and lacks experimental research verification, especially lacking the most basic experimental research on the micro molecular communication platform for nanonetworks, which hinders the development of the field of molecular communication.

[0003] The existing molecular communication system needs to construct a corresponding high molecular material path in advance, configure information carrier molecules on the path, and the system environment needs to configure energy (ATP) for driving the movement of the information carrier molecules, so that the system building cost is high, the complexity is high, and the application scene is limited; the information molecules need to be processed by using a restriction enzyme, and then the transmitted DNA information molecules are decoded by using a nanopore technology, so that the system needs to be implemented in a specific environment, the operation is complex, and the cost is high. SUMMARY

[0004] The present application is directed to the above-mentioned deficiencies in the prior art, and proposes an artificial molecular communication platform taking DNA molecules as information carriers, taking micro DNA chemical molecules as information carriers, and converting macro electrical signals into micro chemical molecular signals, and then converting the micro chemical molecular signals into macro electrical signals by using layer-by-layer self-assembly technology and electrochemical principles.

[0005] The present application is realized by the following technical solutions:

[0006] The present application relates to an artificial molecular communication platform taking DNA molecules as information carriers, comprising: an electrically controlled DNA information molecule transmitter located at a sending end, a DNA molecule communication channel, and a DNA information molecule receiver located at a receiving end, wherein: the electrically controlled DNA information molecule transmitter converts macro electrical signals into micro DNA signals, the DNA molecules carrying information propagate to the receiving end in the DNA molecule communication channel through a free diffusion mode, and the DNA information molecule receiver converts the information carried in the received micro DNA information molecules into macro electrical signals and outputs.

[0007] The electrically controlled DNA information molecule transmitter comprises a gold thin film electrode and a multilayer film, wherein the gold thin film electrode controls the release amount of the DNA information molecules by controlling the decomposition of the multilayer film on the electrode surface according to the voltage signal applied on the electrode.

[0008] The gold thin film electrode is preferably made of 3-5 nm thick gold sputtered on a quartz glass and has a size of 22*22 mm.

[0009] The multilayer film is preferably a surface-modified (DNA / Zr 4+ ) n The multilayer film is further preferably a 10-layer structure.

[0010] The electrically controlled DNA information molecule transmitter is prepared by using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technique, i.e. by modifying an anionic polyelectrolyte on the electrode surface, then alternately immersing the electrode in a cationic polyelectrolyte solution and a DNA solution (the electrode is washed between the two solutions), so that the DNA molecules and cations are self-assembled on the electrode surface to form a multilayer film structure.

[0011] The time for immersing in the cationic polyelectrolyte solution and the time for immersing in the DNA solution are both 10 minutes.

[0012] The DNA molecule communication channel is realized by using, but not limited to, a neutral electrolyte solution, and is preferably a NaCl solution with a pH of 7.0.

[0013] The DNA information molecule receiver comprises a gold thin film electrode, a DNA probe modified on the electrode surface, and an electrochemical workstation, wherein the DNA probe captures the DNA information molecules in the environment by complementary pairing and combines to form double strands, thereby changing the impedance size of the gold thin film electrode, the electrochemical workstation detects the impedance of the DNA information molecule receiver by an alternating current impedance spectrum, compares it with the original impedance, obtains the impedance change amount ΔZ, and determines whether the DNA information molecules are detected according to the size of ΔZ.

[0014] The size of the gold thin film electrode is preferably 11*11 mm.

[0015] When the impedance change amount ΔZ is greater than 10%, the DNA information molecule receiver detects the DNA information molecules and outputs a signal.

[0016] The DNA information molecule receiver is prepared by using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technique, i.e. by modifying a DNA complementary to the DNA information molecules as a probe on the electrode surface to form a self-assembled monolayer film, and using electrochemical principles to capture the complementary paired micro DNA information molecules from the DNA molecule communication channel and demodulate their number into a macro voltage signal output.

[0017] The present application relates to a kind of molecular communication methods based on the platform described above, by signal input device, the information needing transmission is encoded as macroscopic electric signal by given encoding mode and is modulated as microcosmic DNA information molecule by electric control DNA information molecule emitter Release to DNA molecule communication channel And transmission to receiving end;DNA information molecule receiver is captured to the microcosmic DNA information molecule arrived by using probe by complementary pairing principle, and the quantity of microcosmic DNA information molecule captured is demodulated as macroscopic electric signal by electrochemistry principle, by signal output device Decoding and output information.

[0018] Technical effects

[0019] The present application uses single-stranded DNA as information molecule, uses the combination of A, T, C, G on DNA chain to carry out information coding, so that single DNA molecule can carry high-density information, and uses electrochemical method to realize signal receiving and detection, compared with prior art, the complexity of system is lower.Compared with prior art, the improvement of the present application is that: 1) using neutral NaCl electrolyte solution as channel is suitable for more application scenarios;2) information molecule is propagated from system emitter to system receiver by free diffusion mechanism in transmission process, without the need to specially build special information transmission channel, and without the need to specially add energy source for the movement of information molecule, the system complexity is low, the cost is low, and the power consumption is small. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 It is the schematic diagram of the system of the present application;

[0021] Figure 2 It is the process schematic diagram of the DNA information molecule released in embodiment;

[0022] Figure 3 It is the schematic diagram of the digital information sequence generation in embodiment;

[0023] In the figure: 1 signal sending end, 2 DNA molecule communication channel, 3 signal receiving end, 4 signal input device, 5 electric control DNA molecule emitter, 6 signal output device, 7 DNA molecule signal receiver. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] As Figure 1 Shown, it is the artificial molecular communication platform of the present application related to a kind of DNA molecule as information carrier, including: signal sending end 1, DNA molecule communication channel 2 and signal receiving end 3 connected in sequence.

[0025] The signal sending end 1 includes: signal input device 4 and electric control DNA molecule emitter 5.

[0026] The signal receiving end 3 includes: a signal output device 6 and a DNA molecule signal receiver 7.

[0027] This embodiment relates to a molecular communication method based on the aforementioned platform. Taking the transmission of binary signals as an example, the signal input device 4 converts the binary signal composed of "0" and "1" into a high-low voltage sequence and applies it to the electrically controlled DNA molecule emitter 5. Here, high voltage represents a "1" signal, and zero voltage represents a "0" signal. Each high-voltage or low-voltage signal operates only within one signal cycle. The electrically controlled DNA molecule emitter 5 controls the release of DNA information molecules according to the received voltage signals; a high-voltage signal releases a certain number of DNA information molecules, while a zero-voltage signal does not release any DNA information molecules.

[0028] The process of the electrically controlled DNA molecule emitter 5 releasing DNA information molecules is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, after a high voltage signal is applied to the gold thin-film electrode, an electrochemical reaction occurs, which is controlled by the electrode surface (DNA / Zr). 4+ ) n The release of DNA information molecules is controlled by the breakdown of multilayer membranes. The DNA information molecules released from signal transmitter 1 enter DNA molecular communication channel 2 and propagate by free diffusion from signal transmitter 1 (high concentration) to signal receiver 3 (low concentration).

[0029] like Figure 3 As shown, when the DNA information molecule arrives at the signal receiving end 3, the probe on the DNA molecule signal receiver 7, which is complementary to the DNA information molecule, is complementary to the DNA information molecule. Through the electrochemical principle, the signal output device 6 converts the number of DNA information molecules bound by the probe on the DNA molecule signal receiver 7 into an electrical signal, and then into a digital information sequence composed of "0" and "1".

[0030] Through specific experiments, in a neutral NaCl electrolyte solution with pH=7.0, when a "1" signal was sent, the signal input device applied a voltage of 2.55V to the electrically controlled DNA molecule emitter for 10 seconds to control the release of DNA signal molecules. After a period of time, the electrochemical workstation measured the impedance change of the DNA molecule signal receiver, which was 10% different from the original impedance, indicating the detection of a "1" signal. When a "0" signal was sent, the signal input device had no output voltage. After a period of time, the electrochemical workstation measured the impedance change of the DNA molecule signal receiver, and the value was almost the same as the original impedance. Using a Nanodrop (an ultraviolet spectrophotometer that can measure DNA concentration in solution), the concentration of DNA molecules in the channel was measured. When a "1" signal was sent, DNA molecules were detected in the channel at a concentration of 2 ng / µL; when a "0" signal was sent, no DNA molecules were detected in the channel.

[0031] Compared with the prior art, (1) the application does not need to construct a special-purpose channel, the system construction cost is low, the complexity is low, the energy consumption is small, and the channel environment is similar to the human body environment, and the application prospect is wide; (2) in the information molecule detection, the application uses the base complementary pairing principle to capture the DNA information molecule through the DNA probe on the surface of the molecular receiver, uses the electrochemical method to detect the overall impedance transformation of the molecular receiver, converts into the electrical signal output, the operation is simple, the system complexity is low, and the cost is low.

[0032] The above specific embodiments can be adjusted in different ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles and purposes of the application, the protection scope of the application is subject to the claims and is not limited by the above specific embodiments, and each implementation scheme within the scope is subject to the constraints of the application.

Claims

1. An artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers, characterized in that, The application relates to a DNA information molecule transmission system, which comprises the following parts: an electrically-controlled DNA information molecule transmitter, a DNA molecule communication channel and a DNA information molecule receiver. The electrically-controlled DNA information molecule transmitter comprises a gold thin film electrode and a multilayer film. The DNA information molecule receiver comprises a gold thin film electrode, a DNA probe modified on the surface of the electrode and an electrochemical workstation, wherein the DNA probe captures the DNA information molecules in the environment by complementary pairing and combines to form double strands, so as to change the impedance size of the gold thin film electrode, the electrochemical workstation detects the impedance of the DNA information molecule receiver by means of alternating current impedance spectrum, compares the impedance with the original impedance, and obtains the impedance change amount According to the size of the , it is judged whether the DNA information molecules are detected or not. The impedance change amount When When the change is greater than 10%, the DNA information molecule receiver detects the DNA information molecule and outputs a signal.

2. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 1, characterized in that, The gold thin film electrode is made of 3-5 nm thick gold sputtered on quartz glass and has a size of 22*22 mm.

3. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 2, characterized in that, The electrically-controlled DNA information molecule transmitter is prepared by using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technology, that is, after an anionic polyelectrolyte is modified on the electrode surface, the electrode is alternately immersed in a cationic polyelectrolyte solution and a DNA solution, so that DNA molecules and cations are self-assembled into a multilayer film structure on the electrode surface through alternate adsorption.

4. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 2, characterized in that, The multilayer film is surface modified 10-layer structure film.

5. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, The DNA information molecule receiver is prepared by using a layer-by-layer self-assembly technology, that is, DNA complementary to the DNA information molecule is modified on the electrode surface as a probe to form a self-assembled monolayer film, and the complementary paired microcosmic DNA information molecules are captured from the DNA molecule communication channel by using an electrochemical principle and are demodulated into a macroscopic voltage signal output.

6. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 5, characterized in that, The information to be transmitted is encoded into a macroscopic electric signal by a signal input device through a given coding mode, is modulated into a microcosmic DNA information molecule by the electrically-controlled DNA information molecule transmitter, is released into the DNA molecule communication channel, is transmitted to the receiving end, is captured by the DNA information molecule receiver through a complementary pairing principle, is demodulated into a macroscopic electric signal by using an electrochemical principle, and is decoded and outputted by a signal output device.

7. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 1, characterized in that, ​ 8. The artificial molecular communication platform with DNA molecules as information carriers according to claim 1, characterized in that, ​ 9. A method of molecular communication based on the platform of any one of claims 1-8, wherein, ​

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