Table 1.
Advances in engineering cells for disease diagnosis
| Disease | Biomarker | Reporter | Diagnostics feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zinc deficiency | Zinc | Pigments | Zinc-responsive transcription factors Zur and ZntR are modules to respond extracellular concentrations of zinc37 |
| Diabetes | Glucose | Fluorescence | Glucose-responsive integrase expression cassette (PCpxP–integrase–pA) that expresses the green fluorescent protein (GFP) for glycosuria testing38 |
| Vibrio cholera infection | Cholera autoinducer 1 (CAI-1) | Colorimetric enzymatic reaction | CqsS-NisK quorum sensing block for cholera autoinducer 1 (CAI-1) detection44 |
| Staphylococcus aureus infection | Autoinducer peptide-I (AIP-I) | Yellow pigment p-nitrophenol | Agr quorum sensing (agrQS) from Staphylococcus aureus to detect autoinducer peptide-I (AIP-I)45 |
| Gut inflammation | Thiosulfate/tetrathionate | Colorimetric enzymatic reaction | Two-component signaling system ThsSR/TtrSR is engineered to detect thiosulfate/tetrathionate49,50 |
| Gut inflammation | Nitrate | Fluorescence | NarX-NarL two-component system in E. coli responds to nitrate51 |
| Liver tumors | Liver metastases | Bioluminescent | PROP-Z (programmable probiotics with lacZ) platform can report liver metastasis52 |
| Intestinal bleeding | Heme | Fluorescence | Probiotic biosensor based on the sensitivity to heme diagnosis of gastrointestinal bleeding in pigs53 |
| Allergic responses | Histamine | Citrine | Engineered HEK293 cells can sensing the extracellular histamine levels and triggering cAMP-induced SEAP (secreted alkaline phosphatase) expression65 |
| Hypercalcaemia | Calcium | Melanin | Engineered HEK293 cells monitor calcium levels and produce melanin visible through the skin66 |
| Yersinia pestis | Phage ΦA1122 with luxAB | Bioluminescence | Engineered a diagnostic phage for Yersinia pestis detection by bioluminescence reporter81 |
| Mycobacterium tuberculosis | Fluoromycobacteriophages | Bioluminescence | Microscopy-based method utilizing the reporter mycobacteriophage mCherrybombϕ for detection of M. tuberculosis82 |
| Listeria monocytogenes | Nanoluciferase (NLuc) -based phage | Bioluminescence | Engineered nanoluciferase (NLuc)-based phage reporters to identify Listeria monocyte83 |