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Xu X, Zuo Y, Chen S, Hatami A, Gu H. Advancements in Brain Research: The In Vivo/In Vitro Electrochemical Detection of Neurochemicals. BIOSENSORS 2024; 14:125. [PMID: 38534232 DOI: 10.3390/bios14030125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Neurochemicals, crucial for nervous system function, influence vital bodily processes and their fluctuations are linked to neurodegenerative diseases and mental health conditions. Monitoring these compounds is pivotal, yet the intricate nature of the central nervous system poses challenges. Researchers have devised methods, notably electrochemical sensing with micro-nanoscale electrodes, offering high-resolution monitoring despite low concentrations and rapid changes. Implantable sensors enable precise detection in brain tissues with minimal damage, while microdialysis-coupled platforms allow in vivo sampling and subsequent in vitro analysis, addressing the selectivity issues seen in other methods. While lacking temporal resolution, techniques like HPLC and CE complement electrochemical sensing's selectivity, particularly for structurally similar neurochemicals. This review covers essential neurochemicals and explores miniaturized electrochemical sensors for brain analysis, emphasizing microdialysis integration. It discusses the pros and cons of these techniques, forecasting electrochemical sensing's future in neuroscience research. Overall, this comprehensive review outlines the evolution, strengths, and potential applications of electrochemical sensing in the study of neurochemicals, offering insights into future advancements in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoxuan Xu
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
| | - Yimei Zuo
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
| | - Shu Chen
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
| | - Amir Hatami
- Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Prof. Sobouti Boulevard, P.O. Box 45195-1159, Zanjan 45137-66731, Iran
- Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Hui Gu
- Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
- Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
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Chen J, Ding X, Zhang D. Challenges and strategies faced in the electrochemical biosensing analysis of neurochemicals in vivo: A review. Talanta 2024; 266:124933. [PMID: 37506520 DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.124933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Our brain is an intricate neuromodulatory network, and various neurochemicals, including neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, gases, ions, and energy metabolites, play important roles in regulating normal brain function. Abnormal release or imbalance of these substances will lead to various diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, therefore, in situ and real-time analysis of neurochemical interactions in pathophysiological conditions is beneficial to facilitate our understanding of brain function. Implantable electrochemical biosensors are capable of monitoring neurochemical signals in real time in extracellular fluid of specific brain regions because they can provide excellent temporal and spatial resolution. However, in vivo electrochemical biosensing analysis mainly faces the following challenges: First, foreign body reactions induced by microelectrode implantation, non-specific adsorption of proteins and redox products, and aggregation of glial cells, which will cause irreversible degradation of performance such as stability and sensitivity of the microsensor and eventually lead to signal loss; Second, various neurochemicals coexist in the complex brain environment, and electroactive substances with similar formal potentials interfere with each other. Therefore, it is a great challenge to design recognition molecules and tailor functional surfaces to develop in vivo electrochemical biosensors with high selectivity. Here, we take the above challenges as a starting point and detail the basic design principles for improving in vivo stability, selectivity and sensitivity of microsensors through some specific functionalized surface strategies as case studies. At the same time, we summarize surface modification strategies for in vivo electrochemical biosensing analysis of some important neurochemicals for researchers' reference. In addition, we also focus on the electrochemical detection of low basal concentrations of neurochemicals in vivo via amperometric waveform techniques, as well as the stability and biocompatibility of reference electrodes during long-term sensing, and provide an outlook on the future direction of in vivo electrochemical neurosensing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiatao Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, China
| | - Xiuting Ding
- School of Pharmacy, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, China
| | - Dongdong Zhang
- School of Pharmacy, Health Science Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, China.
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Qu ZB, Jiang Y, Zhang J, Chen S, Zeng R, Zhuo Y, Lu M, Shi G, Gu H. Tailoring Oxygen-Containing Groups on Graphene for Ratiometric Electrochemical Measurements of Ascorbic Acid in Living Subacute Parkinson's Disease Mouse Brains. Anal Chem 2021; 93:16598-16607. [PMID: 34844405 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c03965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Ascorbic acid (AA), a major antioxidant in the central nervous system (CNS), is involved in withstanding oxidative stress that plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). Exploring the AA disturbance in the process of PD is of great value in understanding the molecular mechanism of PD. Herein, by virtue of a carbon fiber electrode (CFE) as a matric electrode, a three-step electrochemical process for tailoring oxygen-containing groups on graphene was well designed: potentiostatic deposition was carried out to fabricate graphene oxide on CFE, electrochemical reduction that assisted in removing the epoxy groups accelerated the electron transfer kinetics of AA oxidation, and electrochemical oxidation that increased the content of the carbonyl group (C═O) generated an inner-reference signal. The mechanism was solidified by ab initio calculations by comparing AA absorption on defected models of graphene functionalized with different oxygen groups including carboxyl, hydroxyl, epoxy, and carbonyl. It was found that epoxy groups would hinder the physical absorption of AA onto graphene, while other functional groups would be beneficial to it. Biocompatible polyethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) was further rationally assembled to improve the antifouling property of graphene. As a result, a new platform for ratiometric electrochemical measurements of AA with high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, and reproducibility was established. In vivo determination of AA levels in different regions of living mouse brains by the proposed method demonstrated that AA decreased remarkably in the hippocampus and cortex of a subacute PD mouse than those of a normal mouse.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi-Bei Qu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Yimin Jiang
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Jiaxin Zhang
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Shu Chen
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Rongjin Zeng
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Yi Zhuo
- Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Neurorestoratology, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410006, P.R. China
| | - Ming Lu
- Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Neurorestoratology, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410006, P.R. China
| | - Guoyue Shi
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, P. R. China
| | - Hui Gu
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
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Tao J, Zhu Y, Zhao S, Chen P, Zhang S, Sun J, Shen X. A novel approach with glass needle enclosed movable probe for in vivo real-time detection of glucose in cisternal cerebrospinal fluid. J Electroanal Chem (Lausanne) 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2020.114440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Gu H, Guo Y, Xiao X, Li C, Shi G, He J. Double molecular recognition strategy based on boronic acid–diol and NHS ester–amine for selective electrochemical detection of cerebral dopamine. Anal Bioanal Chem 2020; 412:3727-3736. [DOI: 10.1007/s00216-020-02624-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2020] [Revised: 03/14/2020] [Accepted: 03/27/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Jiang Y, Xiao X, Li C, Luo Y, Chen S, Shi G, Han K, Gu H. Facile Ratiometric Electrochemical Sensor for In Vivo/Online Repetitive Measurements of Cerebral Ascorbic Acid in Brain Microdiaysate. Anal Chem 2020; 92:3981-3989. [PMID: 32037799 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b05484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The in vivo monitoring of ascorbic acid (AA) following physiological and pathological events is of great importance because AA plays a critical role in brain functions. The conventional electrochemical sensors (ECSs) usually suffered from poor selectivity and sluggish electron transfer kinetics for cerebral AA oxidation. The exploitation of ECSs adapt to the electrochemical detection (ECD)-microdialysis system, here we reported a facile ratiometric electrochemical sensor (RECS) for in vivo/online repetitive measurements of cerebral AA in brain microdiaysate. The sensor were constructed by careful electrodeposition of graphene oxide (GO) onto glassy carbon (GC) electrodes. Methylene blue (MB) was electrostatically adsorbed onto the GO surface as a built-in reference to achieve ratiometric detection of AA. The subsequent proper electroreduction treatment was able to readily facilitate the oxidation of AA at a relatively negative potential (-100 mV) and the oxidation of MB at separated potential (-428 mV). The in vitro experiments demonstrated that the RECS exhibited high sensitivity (detection limit: 10 nM), selectivity, and stability toward AA determination, enabling the in vivo/online repetitive measurement of cerebral AA in brain microdiaysate with high reliability. As a result, the designed RECS was successfully applied in the ECD-microdialysis system to in vivo/online repetitive monitoring the dynamic change of cerebral AA in the progress of the global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion events. More, the microinjection of endogenous AA and AA oxidase (AAOx) verified the reliability of the proposed RECS for in vivo/online repetitive cerebral AA detection. This proposed sensor filled the gap that no rational electrochemical sensor has been developed for the ECD-microdialysis system since its creation by the Mao group in 2005, which provided a reliable and effective method for brain chemistry research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yimin Jiang
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Xia Xiao
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Chenchen Li
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Yu Luo
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Shu Chen
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
| | - Guoyue Shi
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, P. R. China
| | - Kai Han
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P. R. China
| | - Hui Gu
- A Key Laboratory of Theoretical Organic Chemistry and Functional Molecule of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan 411201, P. R. China
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