No abstract

The development of sensors to detect specific weak biological interactions is still today a challenging topic. Characteristics of carbohydrate-protein (lectin) interactions include high specificity and low affinity. This work describes the development of nanostructured impedimetric sensors for the detection of concanavalin A (Con A) binding to immobilized thiolated carbohydrate derivatives (D-mannose or D-glucose) onto screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) modified with gold nanoparticles. Thiolated D-galactose derivative was employed as negative control to evaluate the selectivity of the proposed methodology. After binding the thiolated carbohydrate to the nanostructured SPCEs, different functionalized thiols were employed to form mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAM). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed as a technique to evaluate the binding of Con A to selected carbohydrates through the increase of electron transfer resistance of the ferri/ferrocyanide redox probe at the differently SAM modified electrodes. Different variables of the assay protocol were studied in order to optimize the sensor performance. Selective Con A determinations were only achieved by the formation of mixed SAMs with adequate functionalized thiols. Important differences were obtained depending on the chain lengths and functional groups of these thiols. For the 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate mixed SAMs, the electron transfer resistance varied linearly with the Con A concentration in the 2.2-40.0 μg mL(-1) range for D-mannose and D-glucose modified sensors. Low detection limits (0.099 and 0.078 pmol) and good reproducibility (6.9 and 6.1%, n=10) were obtained for the D-glucose and D-mannose modified sensors, respectively, without any amplification strategy.

Disposable magnetic DNA sensors using an enzyme-amplified strategy for the specific detection of a gene related to the Enterobacteriaceae bacterial family, based on the coupling of streptavidin-peroxidase to biotinylated lacZ gene target sequences, has been developed. A biotinylated 25-mer capture probe was attached to streptavidin-modified magnetic beads and hybridization with the biotinylated target was allowed to proceed. Then, a streptavidin-peroxidase polymer was attached to the biotinylated target, and the resulting modified magnetic beads were captured by a magnetic field on the surface of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) modified gold screen-printed electrodes (Au/SPEs). The amperometric response obtained at -0.15 V after the addition of hydrogen peroxide was used to detect the hybridization process. In order to improve the sensitivity of the determination and reduce the assay time, different variables of the assay protocol were optimized. A low detection limit (5.7 fmol) with good stability (RSD = 7.1%, n = 10) was obtained. The DNA nonspecific adsorption at the magnetic beads was negligible, the obtained results thus demonstrating the possibility to detect the hybridization event with great specificity and sensitivity. The developed method was used for the analysis of Escherichia coli DNA fragments (326 bases) in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons extracted from a cell culture. As low as 2.5 aM asymmetric PCR product could be detected with the developed methodology.