An Ultrasensitive Molecularly Imprinted Point‐Of‐Care Electrochemical Sensor for Detection of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein

Abstract

Accurate assessment of neurological disease through monitoring of biomarkers has been made possible using the antibody‐based assays. But these assays suffer from expensive development of antibody probes, reliance on complicated equipments, and high maintenance costs. Here, using the novel reduced graphene oxide/polydopamine‐molecularly imprinted polymer (rGO/PDA‐MIP) as the probe layer, a robust electrochemical sensing platform is demonstrated for the ultrasensitive detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a biomarker for a range of neurological diseases. A miniaturized integrated circuit readout system is developed to interface with the electrochemical sensor, which empowers it with the potential to be used as a point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostic tool in primary clinical settings. This innovative platform demonstrated good sensitivity, selectivity, and stability, with imprinting factor evaluated as 2.8. A record low limit‐of‐detection (LoD) is down to 754.5 ag mL−1, with a wide dynamic range from 1 to 106 fg mL−1. The sensing platform is validated through the analysis of GFAP in clinical plasma samples, yielding a recovery rate range of 81.6–108.8% compared to Single Molecule Array (Simoa). This cost‐effective and user‐friendly sensing platform holds the potential to be deployed in primary and resource‐limited clinical settings for the assessment of neurological diseases.