Low-cost, thin-film, mass-manufacturable carbon electrodes for detection of the neurotransmitter dopamine

Simple and sensitive detection of miRNA-122 based on a micro-biosensor through square wave voltammetry

The simple and sensitive detection of miRNA-122 in blood is crucially important for early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis. In this work, a platinum microelectrode (PtμE) was prepared and electrodeposited with molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) and gold nanoparticles (AuNP), respectively, and denoted as PtμE/MoS₂/Au. The prepared PtμE/MoS₂/Au was used as the microsensor for the detection of miRNA-122 combined with the probe DNA as a biorecognition element which is the complementary strand of miRNA-122. The PtμE/MoS₂/Au conjugated with the probe DNA modified with sulfydryl units was used as the micro-biosensor for the detection of miRNA-122. The square wave voltammetry was performed for the quantitative detection of miRNA-122 using [Fe(CN)₆]^4-/3- as a mediator. Under the optimized conditions, the PtμE/MoS₂/Au micro-biosensor shows a linear detection toward miRNA-122 ranging from 10^-11 to 10^-8 M (S = 6.9 nA dec^-1, R² = 0.9997), and the detection limit is 1.6 × 10^-12 M (3σ/b). The PtμE/MoS₂/Au micro-biosensor demonstrates good selectivity against other types of proteins and small molecules, and has good reproducibility. Moreover, the PtμE/MoS₂/Au micro-biosensor was successfully applied for the measurement of miRNA-122 in real blood samples. Herein, the proposed detection assay could be a potential tool in HCC clinical diagnostics with high sensitivity.

The Roadmap of Graphene-Based Sensors: Electrochemical Methods for Bioanalytical Applications

Graphene (GR) has engrossed immense research attention as an emerging carbon material owing to its enthralling electrochemical (EC) and physical properties. Herein, we debate the role of GR-based nanomaterials (NMs) in refining EC sensing performance toward bioanalytes detection. Following the introduction, we briefly discuss the GR fabrication, properties, application as electrode materials, the principle of EC sensing system, and the importance of bioanalytes detection in early disease diagnosis. Along with the brief description of GR-derivatives, simulation, and doping, classification of GR-based EC sensors such as cancer biomarkers, neurotransmitters, DNA sensors, immunosensors, and various other bioanalytes detection is provided. The working mechanism of topical GR-based EC sensors, advantages, and real-time analysis of these along with details of analytical merit of figures for EC sensors are discussed. Last, we have concluded the review by providing some suggestions to overcome the existing downsides of GR-based sensors and future outlook. The advancement of electrochemistry, nanotechnology, and point-of-care (POC) devices could offer the next generation of precise, sensitive, and reliable EC sensors.

Lignosulfonate in situ-modified reduced graphene oxide biosensors for the electrochemical detection of dopamine

Lignosulfonate (LS), a biomass by-product from sulfite pulping and the paper-making industry, which has many excellent characteristics, such as renewable, environmentally friendly, amphiphilic nature, and especially the abundant content of hydrophilic functional groups in its architecture, making it highly reactive and can be used as a sensitive material in sensors to show changes in electrical signals. Herein, we report a one-step in situ method to fabricate lignosulfonate-modified reduced graphene oxide (LS-rGO) green biosensors, which can be used for the sensitive electrochemical detection of dopamine without interference from uric acid and ascorbic acid. The modified LS molecular layers act as chemical-sensing layers, while the rGO planar sheets function as electric-transmitting layers in the as-assembled dopamine biosensors. After the in situ-decoration of the LS modifier, the sensing performance of LS-rGO for the detection of dopamine was much higher than that of the pure rGO electrode, and the highest current response of the biosensor toward dopamine greatly improved from 11.2 μA to 52.07 μA. The electrochemical sensitivity of the modified biosensor was optimized to be 0.43 μA μM^-1, and the detection limit was as low as 0.035 μM with a wide linear range (0.12-100 μM), which is better than that of most previously reported metal- and organic-based modified graphene electrodes. The newly designed biosensor has unique advantages including rapid, stable, sensitive and selective detection of dopamine without interference, providing a facile pathway for the synthesis of green resource-derived sensing materials instead of the traditional toxic and expensive modifiers.

One-step detection of alpha fetal protein based on gold microelectrode through square wave voltammetry

The detection of tumor markers in blood samples with high efficiency and sensitivity is in urgent need. In this work, a one-step quantitative detection assay for alpha fetal protein (AFP) based on gold microelectrode which is denoted as AuμE through square wave voltammetry using [Fe(CN)₆]^3-/4- as mediator was developed. As the biorecognition element of the assay, sulfydryl-modified AFP aptamer could be directly conjugated onto the surface of the AuμE, which could capture AFP with high specificity, and this attachment would cause the decrease of the capacitive current of the cyclic voltammetry due to the reduction of the active area of the electrodes. Under the optimized conditions, the AuμE aptasensor exhibited a linear detection range for AFP from 10^-10 to 10^-7 g/mL (S = 7.6 nA/dec, R² = 0.991), and the detection limit is 2.5 × 10^-11 g/mL. The AuμEs aptasensor demonstrates good selectivity against other types of proteins and small molecules, and has good reproducibility. The real blood samples were used for detection of AFP using the AuμEs aptasensor, the results agree well with those provided by the hospital through electrochemiluminescence method. Herein, the proposed one-step detection assay has a great application potential in point-of-care clinical diagnostics.

Development of Carcinoembryonic Antigen Rapid Detection System Based on Platinum Microelectrode

Rapid and highly sensitive detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in blood could effectively improve the diagnostic sensitivity of colorectal cancer. In this work, a platinum microelectrode (PtμE) modified with gold nanoparticles was developed as a microsensor for the detection of CEA. As the recognition element, a CEA aptamer modified with sulfhydryl could be conjugated onto the surface of the PtμEs/Au. The quantitative analysis of the concentration of CEA [CEA] by the prepared PtμEs/Au aptasensor was carried out through square wave voltammetry. Under the optimized conditions, the PtμEs/Au aptasensor exhibits a linear response toward [CEA] in the range of 1.0 × 10^–11—1.0 × 10^–7 g/ml (S = 5.5 nA/dec, R² = 0.999), and the detection limit is 7.7 × 10^–12 g/ml. The PtμEs/Au aptasensor also has good selectivity against other types of proteins existing in blood. The availability of the developed assay toward [CEA] in blood samples was investigated, and the results agreed well with those obtained through electrochemiluminescence provided by the hospital, and the volume of the blood sample for detection is only 20 μl. Herein, the proposed detection system could be used for the quantitative analysis of CEA in blood, with the advantages of high sensitivity, short time, and low cost. Moreover, the PtμEs/Au aptasensor has a potential application in clinical diagnosis.

New approach in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance using biosensor technology: a review

Biosensors are analytical tools that transform the bio-signal into an observable response. Biosensors are effective for early detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection because they target viral antigens to assess clinical development and provide information on the severity and critical trends of infection. The biosensors are capable of being on-site, fast, and extremely sensitive to the target viral antigen, opening the door for early detection of SARS-CoV-2. They can screen individuals in hospitals, airports, and other crowded locations. Microfluidics and nanotechnology are promising cornerstones for the development of biosensor-based techniques. Recently, due to high selectivity, simplicity, low cost, and reliability, the production of biosensor instruments have attracted considerable interest. This review article precisely provides the extensive scientific advancement and intensive look of basic principles and implementation of biosensors in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance, especially for human health. In this review, the importance of biosensors including Optical, Electrochemical, Piezoelectric, Microfluidic, Paper-based biosensors, Immunosensors, and Nano-Biosensors in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 has been underscored. Smartphone biosensors and calorimetric strips that target antibodies or antigens should be developed immediately to combat the rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2. Wearable biosensors can constantly monitor patients, which is a highly desired feature of biosensors. Finally, we summarized the literature, outlined new approaches and future directions in diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 by biosensor-based techniques.

Construction of a Au@MoS2 composite nanosheet biosensor for the ultrasensitive detection of a neurotransmitter and understanding of its mechanism based on DFT calculations

MoS₂ nanosheets can be applied as electrochemical biosensors to selectively and sensitively respond to the surrounding environment and detect various biomolecules due to their large specific surface area and unique physicochemical properties. In this paper, single-layer or few-layer MoS₂ nanosheets were prepared by an improved liquid phase stripping method, and then combining the unique material characteristics of MoS₂ and the metallic property of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), Au@MoS₂ composite nanosheets were synthesized based on MoS₂ nanosheets. Then, the structure and properties of MoS₂ nanosheets and Au@MoS₂ composite nanosheets were comprehensively characterized. The results proved that AuNPs were successfully loaded on MoS₂ nanosheets. At the same time, on the basis of the successful preparation of Au@MoS₂ composite nanosheets, an electrochemical biosensor targeting dopamine was successfully constructed by cyclic voltammetry. The linear detection range was 0.5–350 μM, and the detection limit was 0.2 μM. The high-sensitive electrochemical detection of dopamine has been achieved, which provides a new idea for the application of MoS₂-based nanomaterials in the biosensing of neurotransmitters. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) was used to explore the electrochemical performance of Au@MoS₂ composite nanosheets. The results show that the adsorption of Au atoms on the MoS₂ 2D structure improves the conductivity of MoS₂ nanosheets, which theoretically supports the possibilities of its application as a platform for the ultrasensitive detection of neurotransmitters or other biomolecules in the field of disease diagnosis.

An electrochemical biosensor based on Au@MoS₂ composite nanosheets was successfully prepared for the high-sensitivity detection of dopamine.

Screen-printed analytical strip constructed with bacteria-templated porous N-doped carbon nanorods/Au nanoparticles for sensitive electrochemical detection of dopamine molecules

Dopamine (DA) as an important neurotransmitter plays an important role in physiological activities, and its abnormal level can cause diseases such as Parkinson's disease. However, the clinical analysis of DA mainly relies on time-consuming and expensive liquid chromatography and molecular spectrometer. We present here a design and fabrication of inexpensive strip sensor constructed from screen printed electrodes for sensitive and selective detection of DA. The ink used for printing the strips contains Shewanella putrefaciens-templated porous N-doped carbon nanorods (N-doped CN) and Au nanoparticles (Au NPs), in which the N-doping enhances CN's negative charge to electrostatically attract the positively charged DA with strong adsorption for achieving fast electron transfer. Moreover, results indicate that the Au NPs impregnation in N-doped CN renders much more catalytic reaction sites toward DA oxidation current. The strip sensor exhibits high sensitivity for DA detection with a broad linear range of 0.02-700 μM and a low detection limit of 0.007 μM as well as good selectivity and superior flexibility for great potential in wearable applications. The strip sensor further performs an accurate detection of DA in human serum, providing a powerful analytical tool for diagnosis of DA related diseases in clinical analysis.

Sweet potato derived three-dimensional carbon aerogels with a hierarchical meso-macroporous and branching nanostructure for electroanalysis

In this paper, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are used as low-cost precursors to synthesize carbon aerogels with a hierarchical meso-macroporous and branching nanostructure (HMM-BNCA). An HMM-BNCA-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) (HMM-BNCA/GCE) exhibits high electrocatalytic activity for some electroactive biomolecules. For ascorbic acid (AA), the HMM-BNCA/GCE exhibits low oxidation peak potential and detection limit (-0.005 V and 0.45 μM, S/N = 3), high sensitivities (195.43 and 121.00 μA mM-1 cm-2) and wide linear ranges (10-1250 μM and 1250-4750 μM), which are superior to those obtained at the GCE and carbon nanotube (CNT)-modified GCE (CNT/GCE). The HMM-BNCA/GCE exhibits significant resistance to fouling and the interfering substances for the detection of AA. The successful and accurate detection of AA in real samples (such as vitamin C injections and vitamin C soft drinks) in this work demonstrates the feasibility and tremendous potential of HMM-BNCA/GCE for the analysis of AA in complex systems.

"Nano": An Emerging Avenue in Electrochemical Detection of Neurotransmitters

The growing importance of nanomaterials toward the detection of neurotransmitter molecules has been chronicled in this review. Neurotransmitters (NTs) are chemicals that serve as messengers in synaptic transmission and are key players in brain functions. Abnormal levels of NTs are associated with numerous psychotic and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, their sensitive and robust detection is of great significance in clinical diagnostics. For more than three decades, electrochemical sensors have made a mark toward clinical detection of NTs. The superiority of these electrochemical sensors lies in their ability to enable sensitive, simple, rapid, and selective determination of analyte molecules while remaining relatively inexpensive. Additionally, these sensors are capable of being integrated in robust, portable, and miniaturized devices to establish point-of-care diagnostic platforms. Nanomaterials have emerged as promising materials with significant implications for electrochemical sensing due to their inherent capability to achieve high surface coverage, superior sensitivity, and rapid response in addition to simple device architecture and miniaturization. Considering the enormous significance of the levels of NTs in biological systems and the advances in sensing ushered in with the integration of nanotechnology in electrochemistry, the analysis of NTs by employing nanomaterials as interface materials in various matrices has emerged as an active area of research. This review explores the advancements made in the field of electrochemical sensors for the sensitive and selective determination of NTs which have been described in the past two decades with a distinctive focus on extremely innovative attributes introduced by nanotechnology.

QCM Sensor Arrays, Electroanalytical Techniques and NIR Spectroscopy Coupled to Multivariate Analysis for Quality Assessment of Food Products, Raw Materials, Ingredients and Foodborne Pathogen Detection: Challenges and Breakthroughs

Quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products, raw materials, and food ingredients is critically important to ensure the safeguard of foods of high quality for safety and public health. Nevertheless, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products along distribution and supply chains is impacted by various challenges. For instance, the development of portable, sensitive, low-cost, and robust instrumentation that is capable of real-time, accurate, and sensitive analysis, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products in the field and/or in the production line in a food manufacturing industry is a major technological and analytical challenge. Other significant challenges include analytical method development, method validation strategies, and the non-availability of reference materials and/or standards for emerging food contaminants. The simplicity, portability, non-invasive, non-destructive properties, and low-cost of NIR spectrometers, make them appealing and desirable instruments of choice for rapid quality checks, assessments and assurances of food products, raw materials, and ingredients. This review article surveys literature and examines current challenges and breakthroughs in quality checks and the assessment of a variety of food products, raw materials, and ingredients. Specifically, recent technological innovations and notable advances in quartz crystal microbalances (QCM), electroanalytical techniques, and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic instrument development in the quality assessment of selected food products, and the analysis of food raw materials and ingredients for foodborne pathogen detection between January 2019 and July 2020 are highlighted. In addition, chemometric approaches and multivariate analyses of spectral data for NIR instrumental calibration and sample analyses for quality assessments and assurances of selected food products and electrochemical methods for foodborne pathogen detection are discussed. Moreover, this review provides insight into the future trajectory of innovative technological developments in QCM, electroanalytical techniques, NIR spectroscopy, and multivariate analyses relating to general applications for the quality assessment of food products.

Graphitic Carbon Nitride: A Highly Electroactive Nanomaterial for Environmental and Clinical Sensing

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a two-dimensional conjugated polymer that has attracted the interest of researchers and industrial communities owing to its outstanding analytical merits such as low-cost synthesis, high stability, unique electronic properties, catalytic ability, high quantum yield, nontoxicity, metal-free, low bandgap energy, and electron-rich properties. Notably, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is the most stable allotrope of carbon nitrides. It has been explored in various analytical fields due to its excellent biocompatibility properties, including ease of surface functionalization and hydrogen-bonding. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) acts as a nanomediator and serves as an immobilization layer to detect various biomolecules. Numerous reports have been presented in the literature on applying graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) for the construction of electrochemical sensors and biosensors. Different electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, electrochemiluminescence, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, square wave anodic stripping voltammetry, and amperometry techniques have been extensively used for the detection of biologic molecules and heavy metals, with high sensitivity and good selectivity. For this reason, the leading drive of this review is to stress the importance of employing graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) for the fabrication of electrochemical sensors and biosensors.

Opportunities and Challenges for Biosensors and Nanoscale Analytical Tools for Pandemics: COVID-19

Biosensors and nanoscale analytical tools have shown huge growth in literature in the past 20 years, with a large number of reports on the topic of 'ultrasensitive', 'cost-effective', and 'early detection' tools with a potential of 'mass-production' cited on the web of science. Yet none of these tools are commercially available in the market or practically viable for mass production and use in pandemic diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this context, we review the technological challenges and opportunities of current bio/chemical sensors and analytical tools by critically analyzing the bottlenecks which have hindered the implementation of advanced sensing technologies in pandemic diseases. We also describe in brief COVID-19 by comparing it with other pandemic strains such as that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) for the identification of features that enable biosensing. Moreover, we discuss visualization and characterization tools that can potentially be used not only for sensing applications but also to assist in speeding up the drug discovery and vaccine development process. Furthermore, we discuss the emerging monitoring mechanism, namely wastewater-based epidemiology, for early warning of the outbreak, focusing on sensors for rapid and on-site analysis of SARS-CoV2 in sewage. To conclude, we provide holistic insights into challenges associated with the quick translation of sensing technologies, policies, ethical issues, technology adoption, and an overall outlook of the role of the sensing technologies in pandemics.

A Facile Fabrication of Biodegradable and Biocompatible Cross-Linked Gelatin as Screen Printing Substrates

This study focuses on preparation and valuation of the biodegradable, native, and modified gelatin film as screen-printing substrates. Modified gelatin film was prepared by crosslinking with various crosslinking agents and the electrode array was designed by screen-printing. It was observed that the swelling ratio of C-2, crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and EDC/NHS (1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide) was found to be lower (3.98%) than that of C-1 (crosslinked with only glutaraldehyde) (8.77%) and C-0 (without crosslinking) (28.15%). The obtained results indicate that the swelling ratios of both C-1 and C-2 were found to be lower than that of C-0 (control one without crosslinking). The Young's modulus for C-1 and C-2 was found to be 8.55 ± 0.57 and 23.72 ± 2.04 kPa, respectively. Hence, it was conveyed that the mechanical strength of C-2 was found to be two times higher than that of C-l, suggesting that the mechanical strength was enhanced upon dual crosslinking in this study also. The adhesion study indicates that silver ink adhesion on the gelation surface is better than that of carbon ink. In addition, the electrical response of C-2 with a screen-printed electrode (SPE) was found to be the same as the commercial polycarbonate (PC) substrate. The result of MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay suggested that the silver SPE on C-2 was non-cytotoxic toward L929 fibroblast cells proliferation. The results indicated that C-2 gelatin is a promising material to act as a screen-printing substrate with excellent biodegradable and biocompatible properties.