p-Benzoquinone activation of metal oxide electrodes for attachment of enzymes

Effective covalent immobilization of quinone and aptamer onto a gold electrode via thiol addition for sensitive and selective protein biosensing

Effective covalent immobilization of quinone and aptamer onto a gold electrode via thiol addition (a Michael addition) for sensitive and selective protein (with thrombin as the model) biosensing is reported, with a detection limit down to 20 fM for thrombin. Briefly, the thiol addition reaction of a gold electrode-supported 1,6-hexanedithiol (HDT) with p-benzoquinone (BQ) yielded BQ-HDT/Au, and the similar reaction of thiolated thrombin aptamer (TTA) with activated BQ-HDT/Au under 0.3V led to formation of a gold electrode-supported novel electrochemical probe TTA-BQ-HDT/Au. The thus-prepared TTA-BQ-HDT/Au exhibits a pair of well-defined redox peaks of quinone moiety, and the TTA-thrombin interaction can sensitively decrease the electrochemical signal. Herein the thiol addition acts as an effective and convenient binding protocols for aptasensing, and a new method (electrochemical conversion of Michael addition complex for signal generation) for the fabrication of biosensor is presented. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to characterize the film properties. In addition, the proposed amperometric aptasensor exhibits good sensitivity, selectivity, and reproducibility. The aptasensor also has acceptable recovery for detection in complex protein sample.

Site-specific immobilization of flavin adenine dinucleotide on indium/tin oxide electrodes through flavin adenine amino group

A Mannich-type reaction was used to attach flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) covalently to aminosilane derivatized indium/tin oxide-coated glass plates. The aminosilane was activated with formaldehyde to give an intermediate that attached specifically to the adenine amino group of FAD. The presence of the intermediate also was demonstrated by coupling hydroquinone to the formaldehyde activated support. The immobilized FAD and hydroquinone were characterized by cyclic or differential pulse voltammetry. The immobilized FAD was shown to reduce the overpotential for NADH oxidation by 180 mV. In keeping with results for FAD on glassy carbon, FAD attached to indium/tin oxide at the adenine amino group did not lead to reconstitution of activity with apoglucose oxidase.