1 Introduction
The combination of climate changes and human activities is very dangerous both
for natural biodiversity conservation and human health. There are two main types of
pollutants: contaminants originated from natural sources and from anthropic
activities. Nevertheless the natural contribution cannot be ignored the human is
more prominent [1] since technological advancement originates every day new
chemical which are dispersed in environment. The exposure to pollutants impacts
the survival of the different animal species and ecological biodiversity. Human
health is under an increasing environmental stress due to a multiple sources of
contaminants derived from working activities, life style and socio-economical living context, acting during all the lifespan of human being [2]. Multidisciplinary
approaches are in development in order to enhance the capability to monitor and
analyze the impact of pollution in the short term (acute exposure) and, most
importantly, on long time scale (chronic exposure). The development of environmental screening methods requires a multiplicity of expertise chemistry, engineering geology and biology.
The improvement in instrument miniaturization (lab-on-chip) [3], remote sensing and ICT support (Wireless communication, Machine Learning, IoT) offer the
possibility not only to provide an efficient effort to develop new monitoring systems, but also to implement a large network to track the time course of pollution in
different sites [4]. Unfortunately the list of toxic compounds could be, in principle,
limitless and without information about toxicity. The heterogeneous group of
contaminants belonging to the Contaminants of Emerging Concerns (CEC) [5] has
attracted the interest or researchers and regulatory agencies. The prediction of CEC
risk assessment their monitoring, remediation and damage mitigation are actively
studied. The detection of low concentration of specific CEC can be efficiently
supported by a new generation of biosensors represented by nucleic acid-based
biosensors.
The aim of this chapter is to offer an outline about the use of nucleic acids to
design and implement a bio-receptor module to sense, in the environment, a specific
class of CEC: the pharmaceutical and personal care product (PCPPs). This chapter
is organized into different sections: (1) a brief survey about CEC; (2) a short outline
about basic characteristics of biosensors; (3) a description of nucleic acid characteristics, functional elements and their role in nanotechnologies; (4) an overview
about different type of software than can be utilized to design a nucleic-acid
bioreceptor; (5) a survey about the environmental application of nucleic acid-based
biosensors
214
P. Arrigo and D. Baroni
The combination of climate changes and human activities is very dangerous both
for natural biodiversity conservation and human health. There are two main types of
pollutants: contaminants originated from natural sources and from anthropic
activities. Nevertheless the natural contribution cannot be ignored the human is
more prominent [1] since technological advancement originates every day new
chemical which are dispersed in environment. The exposure to pollutants impacts
the survival of the different animal species and ecological biodiversity. Human
health is under an increasing environmental stress due to a multiple sources of
contaminants derived from working activities, life style and socio-economical living context, acting during all the lifespan of human being [2]. Multidisciplinary
approaches are in development in order to enhance the capability to monitor and
analyze the impact of pollution in the short term (acute exposure) and, most
importantly, on long time scale (chronic exposure). The development of environmental screening methods requires a multiplicity of expertise chemistry, engineering geology and biology.
The improvement in instrument miniaturization (lab-on-chip) [3], remote sensing and ICT support (Wireless communication, Machine Learning, IoT) offer the
possibility not only to provide an efficient effort to develop new monitoring systems, but also to implement a large network to track the time course of pollution in
different sites [4]. Unfortunately the list of toxic compounds could be, in principle,
limitless and without information about toxicity. The heterogeneous group of
contaminants belonging to the Contaminants of Emerging Concerns (CEC) [5] has
attracted the interest or researchers and regulatory agencies. The prediction of CEC
risk assessment their monitoring, remediation and damage mitigation are actively
studied. The detection of low concentration of specific CEC can be efficiently
supported by a new generation of biosensors represented by nucleic acid-based
biosensors.
The aim of this chapter is to offer an outline about the use of nucleic acids to
design and implement a bio-receptor module to sense, in the environment, a specific
class of CEC: the pharmaceutical and personal care product (PCPPs). This chapter
is organized into different sections: (1) a brief survey about CEC; (2) a short outline
about basic characteristics of biosensors; (3) a description of nucleic acid characteristics, functional elements and their role in nanotechnologies; (4) an overview
about different type of software than can be utilized to design a nucleic-acid
bioreceptor; (5) a survey about the environmental application of nucleic acid-based
biosensors
214
P. Arrigo and D. Baroni