Advances in Lactose Biosensors and Sensors: A Mini Review

Abstract

Quantitative determination of lactose in different dairy products is required to access their nutritional value and diagnosis of various diseases such as lactose intolerance, diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal bloating, vomiting and flatulence. Among the various methods available for lactose, bio-sensing, methods based on immobilized β-galactosidase and glucose oxidase are better, as these are more simple, sensitive, specific and rapid. The present mini review describes various bio-sensing and sensing methods for determination of lactose. The lactose biosensors work ideally in the pH range, 5.0 to 7.0, temperature 30-350 C, response time 4-30s and linear concentration range 1µM to 100 mM, with LOD ranging from 1 µM to 4 mM. The lactose biosensors had storage stability between 10-20 days at 40 C.The miniaturization of lactose biosensors is expected to make them portable and commercial individuals. Non enzymatic lactose sensors offer advantages over enzymatic biosensors byovercoming enzyme stability, simpler fabrication and providing higher sensitivity, broader working range(1fM to 3.47 mM) and lower detection limit 200aM to 26µM.However, non enzymatic biosensors are not specific like enzymatic biosensors.