Sensitivity and specificity are two most important factors to take into account for molecule sensing, chemical detection and disease diagnosis. A perfect sensitivity is to reach the level where a single molecule can be detected. An ideal specificity is to reach the level where the substance can be detected in the presence of many contaminants. The rapidly progressing nanopore technology is approaching this threshold. A wide assortment of biomotors and cellular pores in living organisms perform diverse biological functions. The elegant design of these transportation machineries has inspired the development of single molecule detection based on modulations of the individual current blockage events. The dynamic growth of nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology has stimulated rapid advances in the study of nanopore based instrumentation over the last decade, and inspired great interest in sensing of single molecules including ions, nucleotides, enantiomers, drugs, and polymers such as PEG, RNA, DNA, and polypeptides. This sensing technology has been extended to medical diagnostics and third generation high throughput DNA sequencing. This review covers current nanopore detection platforms including both biological pores and solid state counterparts. Several biological nanopores have been studied over the years, but this review will focus on the three best characterized systems including α-hemolysin and MspA, both containing a smaller channel for the detection of single-strand DNA, as well as bacteriophage phi29 DNA packaging motor connector that contains a larger channel for the passing of double stranded DNA. The advantage and disadvantage of each system are compared; their current and potential applications in nanomedicine, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are discussed.

中文翻译：

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用于实时传感单一化学物质和 DNA 测序的固态和生物纳米孔

灵敏度和特异性是分子传感、化学检测和疾病诊断需要考虑的两个最重要的因素。完美的灵敏度是达到可以检测到单个分子的水平。理想的特异性是达到在存在许多污染物的情况下可以检测到物质的水平。快速发展的纳米孔技术正在接近这个门槛。生物体中各种各样的生物马达和细胞孔执行不同的生物学功能。这些运输机械的优雅设计激发了基于单个电流阻塞事件调制的单分子检测的发展。在过去的十年中，纳米技术和纳米生物技术的动态发展刺激了基于纳米孔的仪器研究的快速发展，并激发了对单个分子（包括离子、核苷酸、对映异构体、药物和聚合物（如 PEG、RNA、DNA）的感测）的极大兴趣, 和多肽。这种传感技术已扩展到医疗诊断和第三代高通量 DNA 测序。这篇综述涵盖了当前的纳米孔检测平台，包括生物孔和固态对应物。多年来已经研究了几种生物纳米孔，但本综述将重点关注三个特征最好的系统，包括 α-溶血素和 MspA，它们都包含用于检测单链 DNA 的较小通道，以及噬菌体 phi29 DNA 包装电机连接器，其中包含一个更大的通道，用于双链 DNA 的通过。比较各系统的优缺点；讨论了它们在纳米医学、生物技术和纳米技术中的当前和潜在应用。