Enzyme-based electrochemical biosensors have been widely
used because
of their sensitivity, rapidity, and highly target-specific reactions.
However, the immobilized enzymes can hinder electron transfer on the
surface of the electrode and can decrease the sensitivity of electrochemical
biosensors. To overcome this problem, we synthesized conductive gold
nanoclusters with two sets of embedded enzyme nanoparticles, which
are called gold nanocluster-embedded dual-enzyme nanoparticles (AuNC-DENPs)
composed of a glucose oxidase-stabilized gold nanocluster (GOX-AuNC) and a horseradish peroxide-stabilized gold nanocluster
(HRP-AuNC). Moreover, the application of these nanoparticles as an
enzyme-based highly sensitive electrochemical sensor was investigated.
Owing to the effect of AuNCs, these nanoparticles have good conductivity
compared to bare protein nanoparticles. In addition, the synthesized
AuNC-DENPs enabled the combination of a two-enzyme cascade reaction,
in which the GOX-AuNC component of the nanoparticle oxidized
glucose to generate hydrogen peroxide, which then reacted with the
adjacent HRP-AuNC component on the nanoparticle. Given the proximity
of the two enzyme components in a single nanoparticle, the AuNC-DENPs
markedly reduced the diffusion and decomposition of H2O2 during the cascade reaction and showed an enhanced catalytic
reaction compared to a mixture of enzymes. As a result, the biosensor
exhibited high sensitivity (18,944 μA/mM cm2) and
could detect very low concentrations of glucose ranging from 5 to
320 nM and a LOD of 2.58 nM. In addition, by analyzing nontarget materials
and serum together with glucose, it was confirmed that the sensor
has good selectivity for glucose.