Visible Light Photoelectrochemical Sensor for Acetaminophen Determination using a Glassy Carbon Electrode Modified with BiVO4 Nanoparticles

A new and simple photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor using a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) nanoparticles and dihexadecyl phosphate (DHP) film was useful for acetaminophen (AC) determination. In 0.2 mol L⁻¹ phosphate buffer (pH=9), the GCE without modification exhibited the smaller photocurrent (0.86 μA) when compared with GCE modified with 1.0 mg mL⁻¹ or 2.0 mg mL⁻¹ BiVO₄ nanoparticles suspension (5.9 and 34 μA, respectively). Based on the photocurrent signal generated through the interaction between GCE, BiVO₄ and the energy of visible light a chronoamperometric method for AC determination was developed. The AC linear range concentration from 0.099 to 0.99 μmol L⁻¹ and limits of detection and quantification of 0.027 and 0.091 μmol L⁻¹, respectively, was obtained. The proposed method was applied to the AC determination in commercial drugs and tap water with satisfactory accuracy and precision. Moreover, the PEC construction was easy and had a short response time, which might confer higher sample throughput for the method.     

A Novel Label-free Chronoamperometric Immunosensor Based on a Biocomposite Material for Rapid Detection of Carcinoembryonic Antigen

In this research, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)-capped gold nanoparticles, nickel ferrite particles, and carbon nanotubes were combined to form a PANC metal composite. The prepared metal composite modified onto a glassy carbon electrode was electropolymerized with poly(o-phenylenediamine) and immobilized with horseradish peroxidase, anti-carcinoembryonic antigen antibody, and bovine serum albumin to create the label-free immunosensors for rapid detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) using chronoamperometry. This developed biocomposite material modified onto a glassy carbon electrode presented an excellent electrocatalytic response to the redox reaction of hydrogen peroxide as a sensing probe, from which the kinetic parameters including of a charge transfer rate constant, a diffusion coefficient value, an electroactive surface area, and a surface concentration were calculated to be 1.85 s⁻¹, 4.28×10⁻⁶ cm² s⁻¹, 0.14 cm² and 1.87×10⁻⁸ mol cm⁻², respectively. The developed immunosensors also exhibited a wide linear range of CEA concentration from 0.01 to 25 ng mL⁻¹ with high sensitivity (96.21 μA cm⁻² ng⁻¹ mL) and low detection limit (0.72 pg mL⁻¹), excellent selectivity without interfering effects from possible species (amoxicillin, ascorbic acid, aspirin, caffeine, cholesterol, dopamine, glucose, and uric acid), outstanding stability (n=100, %I>50 %), repeatability (%RSD=0.34, n=10), reproducibility (%RSD=4.06, n=10), and rapid analysis (25 s each operation time). This proposed method was successfully applied for CEA detection in whole blood samples with satisfactory results, suggesting that this developed sensing platform may be considered to be exploited for fabrication of other label-free electrochemical immunosensors for the real sample analysis.     

A Photoelectrochemical Immunosensor for Prostate Specific Antigen Detection Based on Graphdiyne Oxide Conjugated with Horseradish Peroxidase

Graphdiyne (GDY) was a novel flat material with sp and sp² hybridized carbon atoms. It exhibited good biocompatibility. The application of GDY in PEC immunosensor was very limited. Thus, a novel photoelectrochemical sensor for the sensitive detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) was proposed by using GDY oxide (GDYO) conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and secondary antibody for photocurrent signal inhibition. GDYO was prepared by oxidation of honeycomb-like nanotubes composed of numerous GDY nanosheets. It showed high loading capacity for HRP and the catalytic activity of HRP could be remained. With reduced graphene oxide-CdS (rGO-CdS) as photoelectrochemical sensing platform, a sandwich-type photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor was thus fabricated. The immunosensor presented a wide linear concentration range of 10 fg mL⁻¹–20.0 ng mL⁻¹ with a detection limit (LOD) of 3.5 fg mL⁻¹. Moreover, the PEC immunosensor displayed ideal reproducibility, stability, and selectivity, which was a promising platform for the detection of other important tumor targets.     

New Insights on Potentiometric Immunosensor at Carbon Fiber Microelectrode for Alpha-Fetoprotein in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Herein, we investigated the analytical features of potentiometric immunosensors for detection of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in hepatocellular carcinoma at different electrodes, such as carbon fiber microelectrode (CFME) and carbon-disk electrode (CDE), respectively. To construct such an immunosensor, anti-AFP capture antibodies were first conjugated covalently onto the activated electrodes through typical carbodiimide coupling. Thereafter, one-step immunoreaction protocol was successfully introduced to develop a new potentiometric immunoassay upon addition of AFP. Accompanying the antigen-antibody reaction, the surface charges of the modified electrodes were changed for the readout of electric potential. Results indicated that the linear range of CDE-based immunosensor was 0.1–100 ng mL⁻¹ AFP, whereas the assay sensitivity by using CFME could be further increased to 3.2 pg mL⁻¹ with the linear range from 0.01 to 500 ng mL⁻¹ AFP. Meanwhile, CFME-based immunosensor showed high sensitivity, good reproducibility and specificity, and could be utilized for the analysis of human serum specimens with consistent results relative to commercialized ELISA kit.     

Luminescence‐Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks Based on a Ruthenium(II) Complex: A Signal Amplification Strategy for Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence Immunosensors

Novel luminescence‐functionalized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with superior electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) properties were synthesized based on zinc ions as the central ions and tris(4,4′‐dicarboxylicacid‐2,2′‐bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) dichloride ([Ru(dcbpy)₃]²⁺) as the ligands. For potential applications, the synthesized MOFs were used to fabricate a “signal‐on” ECL immunosensor for the detection of N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP). As expected, enhanced ECL signals were obtained through a simple fabrication strategy because luminescence‐functionalized MOFs not only effectively increased the loading of [Ru(dcbpy)₃]²⁺, but also served as a loading platform in the ECL immunosensor. Furthermore, the proposed ECL immunosensor had a wide linear range from 5 pg mL^?1 to 25 ng mL^?1 and a relatively low detection limit of 1.67 pg mL^?1 (signal/noise=3). The results indicated that luminescence‐functionalized MOFs provided a novel amplification strategy in the construction of ECL immunosensors and might have great prospects for application in bioanalysis.     

Highly Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting with an Immobilized Molecular Co4O4 Cubane Catalyst

Molecular Co₄O₄ cubane water oxidation catalysts were combined with BiVO₄ electrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The results show that tuning the substituent groups on cobalt cubane allows the PEC properties of the final molecular catalyst/BiVO₄ hybrid photoanodes to be tailored. Upon loading a new cubane complex featuring alkoxy carboxylato bridging ligands ( 1 h ) on BiVO₄, an AM 1.5G photocurrent density of 5 mA cm⁻² at 1.23 V vs. RHE for water oxidation was obtained, the highest photocurrent for undoped BiVO₄ photoanodes. A high solar‐energy conversion efficiency of 1.84 % was obtained for the integrated photoanode, a sixfold enhancement over that of unmodified BiVO₄. These results and the high surface charge separation efficiency support the role of surface‐modified molecular catalysts in improving PEC performance and demonstrate the potential of molecule/semiconductor hybrids for efficient artificial photosynthesis.     

High Sensitive Detection of Prostate Specific Antigen by Using Ferrocene Cored Asymmetric PAMAM Dendrimer Interface Screen Printed Electrodes

In this study, electrochemical immunosensors were developed for the detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) using ferrocene (Fc) and polyamidoamine dendrimer (PAMAM) constructs. The biosensor fabrication was designed by modifying the screen‐printed gold electrode (Au) with ferrocene cored dendrimers (FcPAMAM) synthesized in three different generations. The self‐assembled monolayer principle was followed, to obtain sensitive, selective and disposable electrodes. Therefore, the Au electrodes were modified with cysteamine (Cys) to obtain a functional surface for FcPAMAM dendrimers to bind. Dendrimer generations were attached to this surface using a cross‐linker (glutaraldehyde) so that a suitable surface was obtained for binding of biological components. The Monoclonal PSA antibody (anti‐PSA) was immobilized on the Au electrode surface which coated with dendrimer, and (Au/Cys/FcPAMAM/anti‐PSA) biosensing electrode was obtained. The PSA detection performances of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Amperometry based immunosensors exhibited very low detection limits; 0.001 ng mL^?1 and 0.1 pg mL^?1, respectively. In addition, EIS and Amperometry based biosensors using Au/Cys/FcPAMAM/anti‐PSA sensing electrode were represented excellent linear ranges of 0.01 ng mL^?1 to 100 ng mL^?1 and 0.001 ng mL^?1 to 100 ng mL^?1. In order to determine the applicability recovery and selectivity tests were performed using three different proteins in human serum.     

Simultaneous Determination of Aluminum,Cadmium and Lead in Whole Blood by Simultaneous Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Oxygen Charring

A method for the simultaneous determination of aluminum (Al), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in whole blood has been developed by using simultaneous atomic absorption spectrometry (SIMAAS) with oxygen charring. The optimized conditions for the simultaneous determination of Al, Cd and Pb were obtained in the presence of palladium (Pd) as the chemical modifier, using 600 °C and 2400 °C as the pyrolysis and the atomization temperature, respectively. The whole blood samples were diluted 1+5 (v/v) directly with 0.1% (v/v) Triton X‐100. Oxygen was employed to eliminate the interference of carbonaceous residues in the charring step before pyrolysis. The calibration curves were carried out with aqueous standard solutions and the linear ranges were 0–40 ng mL⁻¹, 0–4 ng mL⁻¹ and 0–40 ng mL⁻¹ for Al, Cd and Pb, respectively. The detection limits were 0.96 ng mL⁻¹ (19.2 pg) for Al, 0.03 ng mL⁻¹ (0.6 pg) for Cd and 0.60 ng mL⁻¹ (12.0 pg) for Pb. The spiked recoveries of Al, Cd and Pb in whole blood were 98.0%, 100.0% and 101.7%, respectively. The accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated with the analysis of a whole blood certified reference material (Seronorm, level 2). The found concentrations were in agreement with the recommended values. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of Al, Cd and Pb in whole blood of healthy volunteers before and after eating barbecued foods.     

Simultaneous determination and pharmacokinetic study of giraldoid a,giraldoid B in rat plasma after oral administration of Daphne giraldii Nitsche extracts by LC–MS/MS

A simple sensitive LC–MS/MS method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of giraldoid A and giraldoid B in rat plasma. The method was applied to pharmacokinetics studies of the two compounds from Daphne giraldii Nitsche. Chromatographic separation was accomplished on an Acquity UPLC™ BEH C₁₈ column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 mm) by gradient elution with a flow rate of 0.2 mL min⁻¹_. The method was linear over the concentration range of 1.0–1000 ng mL⁻¹, and the lower limits of quantification were 1.04 ± 0.10 and 1.04 ± 0.09 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions (RSD) were <10.14 and 9.96%. The extraction recovery of the analytes was acceptable. Stability studies demonstrated that the two compounds were stable in the preparation and analytical process. The maximum plasma concentration was 687.78 ± 243.62 ng mL⁻¹ for giraldoid A and 952.38 ± 131.99 ng mL⁻¹ for giraldoid B. The time to reach the maximum plasma concentration was 0.50 ± 0.37 h for giraldoid A and 0.50 ± 0.66 h for giraldoid B. The validated method was successfully applied to investigate the concentration–time profiles of giraldoid A and giraldoid B.     

Chemiluminescent Imaging Assay of SARS-CoV-2 Protein with Target-Induced Enzyme Activity Regulation

Simple but robust testing assays are essential for screening and diagnosis of individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we described a chemiluminescent imaging assay (CLIA) for sensitive and convenient detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) by a target-induced enzyme activity regulation (T-EAR) strategy. The T-EAR used a pair of antibody-DNA probes to recognize SARS-CoV-2 NP and proximity-induce rolling circle amplification for mass-production of pyrophosphate to coordinate with Cu²⁺, which prevented the reduction of Cu²⁺ to Cu⁺ by sodium ascorbate as well as the Cu⁺-caused inactivation of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The activity retention of HRP produced strong CL signal for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 NP by catalyzing the oxidation of luminol by H₂O₂. The T-EAR based CLIA showed a wide detection range from 1 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL (13 fM to 1.3 nM) with the requirement of only 0.75 μL of sample. This CLIA had advantages of good sensitivity, simple wash-free operation, acceptable accuracy, and high-throughput imaging detection, displaying potential applicability in screening assay of COVID-19 infection.     

A BiVO4 Photoanode with a VOx Layer Bearing Oxygen Vacancies Offers Improved Charge Transfer and Oxygen Evolution Kinetics in Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Sluggish oxygen evolution kinetics are one of the key limitations of bismuth vanadate (BiVO₄) photoanodes for efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. To address this issue, we report a vanadium oxide (VO_x) with enriched oxygen vacancies conformally grown on BiVO₄ photoanodes by a simple photo-assisted electrodeposition process. The optimized BiVO₄/VO_x photoanode exhibits a photocurrent density of 6.29 mA cm⁻² at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode under AM 1.5 G illumination, which is ca. 385 % as high as that of its pristine counterpart. A high charge-transfer efficiency of 96 % is achieved and stable PEC water splitting is realized, with a photocurrent retention rate of 88.3 % upon 40 h of testing. The excellent PEC performance is attributed to the presence of oxygen vacancies in VO_x that forms undercoordinated sites, which strengthen the adsorption of water molecules onto the active sites and promote charge transfer during the oxygen evolution reaction. This work demonstrates the potential of vanadium-based catalysts for PEC water oxidation.     

Voltammetric Label‐free Immunosensors for the Diagnosis of Cystic Echinococcosis

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) or hydatid disease is a parasitic infection caused by Echinococcus granulosus. Early serodiagnosis and continuous monitoring of the disease is very important for medical treatment. Here, we report the detecting of both echinococcus antigen and antibody for the diagnosis of hydatid disease using square wave voltammetry (SWV)‐based immunosensors. The gold electrodes were functionalized using cysteamine/phenylene diisothiocyanate linkers and used for the immunosensors fabrication. The hydatid antigen and antibody immunosensors were constructed by the immobilization of either purified rabbit polyclonal antibody or recombinant antigen B (AgB), respectively on the functionalized gold electrodes surfaces. The detection in both cases was achieved by following the change in the SWV reduction peak current of the ferro/ferricyanide redox couple upon antibody or antigen binding. These immunosensors enabled the detection of echinococcus antigen and antibody within a concentration range of 1 pg.mL^?1 to 1 μg.mL^?1 with detection limits of 0.4 pg.mL^?1 and 0.3 pg.mL^?1, respectively. A preliminary application of the developed immunosensor was performed in spiked serum sample showing good recovery percentages ranging from 102 to 110 % for both hydatid antibody and antigen detection. This easy‐to‐use, sensitive, and low cost quantitative method holds great promise for the early diagnosis of hydatid disease and thus, better managements and treatment outcomes.     

Interfacial Capacitance of Graphene Oxide Films Electrodes: Fundamental Studies on Electrolytes Interface Aiming (Bio)Sensing Applications

The understanding of bidimensional materials dynamics and its electrolyte interface equilibrium, such as graphene oxide (GO), is critical for the development of a capacitive biosensing platform. The interfacial capacitance (C_i) of graphene-based materials may be tuned by experimental conditions such as pH optimization and cation size playing key roles at the enhancement of their capacitive properties allowing their application as novel capacitive biosensors. Here we reported a systematic study of C_i of multilayer GO films in different aqueous electrolytes employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for the application in a capacitive detection system. We demonstrated that the presence of ionizable oxygen-containing functional groups within multilayer GO film favors the interactions and the accumulation of cations in the structure of the electrodes enhancing the GO C_i in aqueous solutions, where at pH 7.0 (the best condition) the C_i was 340 μF mg⁻¹ at −0.01 V vs Ag/AgCl. We also established that the hydrated cation radius affects the mobility and interaction with GO functional groups and it plays a critical role in the Ci, as demonstrated in the presence of different cations Na⁺=640 μF mg⁻¹, Li⁺=575 μF mg⁻¹ and TMA⁺=477 μF mg⁻¹. As a proof-of-concept, the capacitive behaviour of GO was explored as biosensing platform for standard streptavidin-biotin systems. For this system, the C_i varied linearly with the log of the concentration of the targeting analyte in the range from 10 pg mL⁻¹ to 100 ng mL⁻¹, showing the promising applicability of capacitive GO based sensors for label-free biosensing.     

Multiplexed Determination of Fertility-related Hormones in Saliva Using Amperometric Immunosensing

This paper reports a dual immunosensor for the simultaneous determination of two important fertility-related hormones: 17β-estradiol, E2, and follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH. The implemented method involves direct competitive (E2) or sandwich-type (FSH) immunoassays carried out on magnetic microparticles (MBs) and amperometric detection at screen-printed dual carbon electrodes (SPdCEs) involving the hydroquinone (HQ)/H₂O₂ system. The developed immune platform demonstrates LOD values of 6.88 pg mL⁻¹ and 0.11 mIU mL⁻¹ for E2 and FSH standards, respectively and usefulness for the determination in saliva samples collected from different volunteers, giving results in agreement with the conventional ELISA methodologies.     

Unveiling the Activity and Stability Origin of BiVO4 Photoanodes with FeNi Oxyhydroxides for Oxygen Evolution

Understanding the origin of formation and active sites of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) cocatalysts is highly required for solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices that generate hydrogen efficiently from water. Herein, we employed a simple pH-modulated method for in situ growth of FeNi oxyhydroxide ultrathin layers on BiVO₄ photoanodes, resulting in one of the highest currently known PEC activities of 5.8 mA cm⁻² (1.23 V_RHE, AM 1.5 G) accompanied with an excellent stability. More importantly, both comparative experiments and density functional theory (DFT) studies clearly reveal that the selective formation of Bi−O−Fe interfacial bonds mainly contributes the enhanced OER activities, while the construction of V−O−Ni interfacial bonds effectively restrains the dissolution of V⁵⁺ ions and promotes the OER stability. Thereby, the synergy between iron and nickel of FeNi oxyhydroxides significantly improved the PEC water oxidation properties of BiVO₄ photoanodes.     

Solar-Assisted eBiorefinery: Photoelectrochemical Pairing of Oxyfunctionalization and Hydrogenation Reactions

Inspired by natural photosynthesis, biocatalytic photoelectrochemical (PEC) platforms are gaining prominence for the conversion of solar energy into useful chemicals by combining redox biocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis. Herein, we report a dual biocatalytic PEC platform consisting of a molybdenum (Mo)-doped BiVO₄ (Mo:BiVO₄) photoanode and an inverse opal ITO (IO-ITO) cathode that gives rise to the coupling of peroxygenase and ene-reductase-mediated catalysis, respectively. In the PEC cell, the photoexcited electrons generated from the Mo:BiVO₄ are transferred to the IO-ITO and regenerate reduced flavin mononucleotides to drive ene-reductase-catalyzed trans-hydrogenation of ketoisophrone to (R)-levodione. Meanwhile, the photoactivated Mo:BiVO₄ evolves H₂O₂ in situ via a two-electron water-oxidation process with the aid of an applied bias, which simultaneously supplies peroxygenases to drive selective hydroxylation of ethylbenzene into enantiopure (R)-1-phenyl-1-hydroxyethane. Thus, the deliberate integration of PEC systems with redox biocatalytic reactions can simultaneously produce valuable chemicals on both electrodes using solar-powered electrons and water.     

电解液成分、厚度及表面改性对旋涂法制备的BiVO4膜层光电化学性能的影响

采用旋涂法在FTO（SnO₂∶F）导电玻璃衬底上沉积得到BiVO₄多孔薄膜用以光解水,改变前驱体的浓度和旋涂次数以调控薄膜的厚度。研究了电解液成分、膜层厚度及表面改性等因素对刚经历过退火处理的BiVO₄薄膜光电化学（PEC）性能的影响。结果表明：通过在电解液中添加适量的空穴吞噬剂Na₂SO₃,或对表面进行Co-Pi改性均能有效改善BiVO₄薄膜的PEC活性。这些措施均能有效抑制固液界面处的载流子复合反应。经Co-Pi改性的BiVO₄薄膜在0.6 V（vs SCE）偏压下,0.1 mol·L^-1 Na₂SO₄+0.1 mol·L^-1 Na₂SO₃的电解液中展现出最高的光电流密度（4.3 mA·cm^-2）。此外,选用一个代表性BiVO₄薄膜作为光阳极制备了一个PEC生物传感器,在检测谷胱甘肽（GSH）上表现出比较高的灵敏度。本研究证实了BiVO₄薄膜的PEC性能严重依赖着光俘获效率和载流子输运过程。     

Solar‐Assisted eBiorefinery: Photoelectrochemical Pairing of Oxyfunctionalization and Hydrogenation Reactions

Inspired by natural photosynthesis, biocatalytic photoelectrochemical (PEC) platforms are gaining prominence for the conversion of solar energy into useful chemicals by combining redox biocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis. Herein, we report a dual biocatalytic PEC platform consisting of a molybdenum (Mo)‐doped BiVO₄ (Mo:BiVO₄) photoanode and an inverse opal ITO (IO‐ITO) cathode that gives rise to the coupling of peroxygenase and ene‐reductase‐mediated catalysis, respectively. In the PEC cell, the photoexcited electrons generated from the Mo:BiVO₄ are transferred to the IO‐ITO and regenerate reduced flavin mononucleotides to drive ene‐reductase‐catalyzed trans‐hydrogenation of ketoisophrone to (R)‐levodione. Meanwhile, the photoactivated Mo:BiVO₄ evolves H₂O₂ in situ via a two‐electron water‐oxidation process with the aid of an applied bias, which simultaneously supplies peroxygenases to drive selective hydroxylation of ethylbenzene into enantiopure (R)‐1‐phenyl‐1‐hydroxyethane. Thus, the deliberate integration of PEC systems with redox biocatalytic reactions can simultaneously produce valuable chemicals on both electrodes using solar‐powered electrons and water.     

A Prostate Specific Antigen Immunosensor Based on Biotinylated‐Antibody/Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complex: Fabrication and Electrochemical Studies

Immobilization of biomolecules with a proper orientation is considered as a basis for diverse biotechnological applications. Herein, we report a host‐guest inclusion complexation between β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) and biotin as a versatile approach for the immobilization of biomolecules. As a practical application, a sandwich‐type electrochemical immunosensor was designed for the determination of prostate specific antigen (PSA). The immunosensor was fabricated by in situ electropolymerization of poly(N‐acetylaniline) onto a rGO‐modified Pt electrode. Then, β‐CD was covalently grafted onto the over‐oxidized polymer backbone. For improving the efficiency of the assay, AuNPs were casted on the polymeric film, on the surface of which thionine (TH) as an electron mediator was covalently immobilized. Using a host‐guest inclusion complexation between β‐CD and biotin, a β‐CD/biotin‐Ab₁/PSA/Ab₂‐horseradish peroxidase (HRP) sandwich was formed on the electrode surface. The analytical signal was produced via electrochemical reduction of TH_ox, generated by biocatalytic oxidation of the TH_red in the presence of HRP/H₂O₂. Under optimal conditions, the proposed sensor responded linearly to PSA in the range from 10.0 pg mL⁻¹ to 25.0 ng mL⁻¹, with a low detection limit of 6.7 pg mL⁻¹ (S/N=3). Kinetic parameters of the interaction of β‐CD with Ab₁ were also investigated. Finally, the applicability of the immunosensor was successfully investigated for the detection of PSA in human serum samples.     

Comparative evaluation of the performance of electrochemical immunosensors using magnetic microparticles and nanoparticles. Application to the determination of tyrosine kinase receptor AXL

Electrochemical sandwich immunoassay strategies involving the use of carboxyl-functionalized magnetic microbeads (cMBs) and magnetic nanoparticles (cMNPs) have been evaluated and compared. The proteolytically cleaved soluble tyrosine kinase receptor sAXL was used as the target analyte. Antibodies against AXL were covalently immobilized on cMBs or cMNPs. Immunobinding of AXL was detected by means of a secondary biotinylated antibody and a streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate. The electrochemical transduction was accomplished by capturing the cMBs or cMNPs bearing the immunoconjugates onto screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) by using a small magnet. The amperometric response was measured at ?0.20 V (vs the silver pseudo-reference electrode of the SPCE) upon the addition of H₂O₂ in the presence of hydroquinone as the redox mediator. The calibration plots for AXL extended up to 7.5 ng mL^?1 when cMBs were used for the preparation of the immunosensor and up to 40 ng mL^?1 in the case of using cMNPs. The respective slope values were 158 (cMBs) and 43 nA mL ng^?1 (cMNPs), while the achieved LODs were 74 (cMBs) and 75 pg mL^?1 (cMNPs). Although the immunosensors prepared with cMBs provided a shorter range of linearity, they exhibited a 3.7-times larger sensitivity than those constructed with cMNPs. The successful application of the new strategies was demonstrated for the determination of the endogenous content of sAXL in real human serum samples (a cut-off value of 71 ng mL^?1 have been established for patients with risk of heart failure). The immunosensors constructed using cMBs or cMNPs can be advanta geously compared, in terms of sensitivity and fabrication time, with the only immunosensor for AXL previously reported. In addition, these new immunosensors took approximately half time than ELISA to perform the assay.

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Graphical abstract Comparative evaluation of the performance of amperometric immunosensors for tyrosine kinase receptor AXL determination using carboxyl-modified magnetic microparticles (cMBs) and nanoparticles (cMNPs) and application to the determination of the endogeneous concentration in real human serum samples.