Recent Progress on Graphene‐based Electrochemical Biosensors

The detailed records and conclusions on the important advancements in graphene‐based electrochemical biosensors have been reviewed. Due to their outstanding properties, graphene‐based materials have been widely studied for the accurate electrochemical detection of many biomolecules, which is extremely vital to the development of biomedical instruments, clinical diagnosis, and disease treatment. This review discusses the graphene research for the effective immobilization of enzymes, including glucose oxidase, horseradish peroxidase, and hemoglobin, etc., and the accurate detection of biomolecules, including glucose, hydrogen peroxide, dopamine, ascorbic acid, uric acid, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, DNA, RNA, and carcinoembryonic antigen, etc. In most of the cases, the graphene‐based biosensors exhibited remarkable performance with high sensitivities, wide linear detection ranges, low detection limits, and long‐term stabilities.     

Electrochemical Biosensors Based on Layer‐by‐Layer Assemblies

Layer‐by‐layer (LBL) assemblies, which have undergone great progress in the past decades, have been used widely in the construction of electrochemical biosensors. The LBL assemblies provide a strategy to rationally design the properties of immobilized films and enhance the performance of biosensors. The following review focuses on the application of LBL assembly technique on electrochemical enzyme biosensors, immunosensors and DNA sensors.     

Biosensors based on carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit a unique combination of excellent mechanical, electrical and electrochemical properties, which has stimulated increasing interest in the application of CNTs as components in (bio)sensors. This review highlights various design methodologies for CNT-based biosensors and their employment for the detection of a number of biomolecules. In addition, recent developments in the fields of CNT-based chemiresistors and chemically sensitive field-effect transistors are presented. After a critical discussion of the factors that currently limit the practical use of CNT-based biosensors, the review concludes with an outline of potential future applications for CNTs in biology and medicine.      

Towards Maintenance‐Free Biosensors for Hundreds of Bind/Release Cycles

A single aptamer bioreceptor layer was formed using a common streptavidin–biotin immobilization strategy and employed for 100–365 bind/release cycles. Chemically induced aptamer unfolding and release of its bound target was accomplished using alkaline solutions with high salt concentrations or deionized (DI) water. The use of DI water scavenged from the ambient atmosphere represents a first step towards maintenance‐free biosensors that do not require the storage of liquid reagents. The aptamer binding affinity was determined by surface plasmon resonance and found to be almost constant over 100–365 bind/release cycles with a variation of less than 5 % relative standard deviation. This reversible operation of biosensors based on immobilized aptamers without storage of liquid reagents introduces a conceptually new perspective in biosensing. Such new biosensing capability will be important for distributed sensor networks, sensors in resource‐limited settings, and wearable sensor applications.     

Coordination‐Driven Folding and Assembly of a Short Peptide into a Protein‐like Two‐Nanometer‐Sized Channel

Short peptide helices have attracted attention as suitable building blocks for soft functional materials, but they are rarely seen in crystalline materials. A new artificial nanoassembly of short peptide helices in the crystalline state is presented in which peptide helices are arranged three‐dimensionally by metal coordination. The folding and assembly processes of a short peptide ligand containing the Gly‐Pro‐Pro sequence were induced by silver(I) coordination in aqueous alcohol, and gave rise to a single crystal composed of polyproline II helices. Crystallographic studies revealed that this material possesses two types of unique helical nanochannel; the larger channel measures more than 2 nm in diameter. Guest uptake properties were investigated by soaking the crystals in polar solutions of guest molecules; anions, organic chiral molecules, and bio‐oligomers are effectively encapsulated by this peptide‐folded porous crystal, with moderate to high chiral recognition for chiral molecules.     

Arrest of Rolling Circle Amplification by Protein‐Binding DNA Aptamers

Certain DNA polymerases, such as ?29 DNA polymerase, can isothermally copy the sequence of a circular template round by round in a process known as rolling circle amplification (RCA), which results in super‐long single‐stranded (ss) DNA molecules made of tandem repeats. The power of RCA reflects the high processivity and the strand‐displacement ability of these polymerases. In this work, the ability of ?29DNAP to carry out RCA over circular templates containing a protein‐binding DNA aptamer sequence was investigated. It was found that protein–aptamer interactions can prevent this DNA polymerase from reading through the aptameric domain. This finding indicates that protein‐binding DNA aptamers can form highly stable complexes with their targets in solution. This novel observation was exploited by translating RCA arrest into a simple and convenient colorimetric assay for the detection of specific protein targets, which continues to showcase the versatility of aptamers as molecular recognition elements for biosensing applications.     

Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes‐Chitosan Modified Single‐Use Biosensors for Electrochemical Monitoring of Drug‐DNA Interactions

A multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT)‐chitosan (CHIT) modified pencil graphite electrode (CNT‐CHIT/PGE) was developed for the first time herein for electrochemical monitoring of the interaction of an anticancer drug, mitomycin C (MC) and DNA. The characterization of unmodified PGE, CHIT/PGE, CNT/PGE and CHIT‐CNT/PGE were performed by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry techniques. The oxidation signals of MC and guanine were measured before and after interaction at the surface of CNT‐CHIT/PGEs using differential pulse voltammetry. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique was also successfully utilized for monitoring of the interaction process at the surface of CNT‐CHIT/PGEs in different interaction times.     

Increasing the Sensitivity and Single‐Base Mismatch Selectivity of the Molecular Beacon Using Graphene Oxide as the “Nanoquencher”

Here, we report a novel, highly sensitive, selective and economical molecular beacon using graphene oxide as the “nanoquencher”. This novel molecular beacon system contains a hairpin‐structured fluorophore‐labeled oligonucleotide and a graphene oxide sheet. The strong interaction between hairpin‐structured oligonucleotide and graphene oxide keep them in close proximity, facilitating the fluorescence quenching of the fluorophore by graphene oxide. In the presence of a complementary target DNA, the binding between hairpin‐structured oligonucleotide and target DNA will disturb the interaction between hairpin‐structured oligonucleotide and graphene oxide, and release the oligonucleotide from graphene oxide, resulting in restoration of fluorophore fluorescence. In the present study, we show that this novel graphene oxide quenched molecular beacon can be used to detect target DNA with higher sensitivity and single‐base mismatch selectivity compared to the conventional molecular beacon.     

Live‐cell MRI with Xenon Hyper‐CEST Biosensors Targeted to Metabolically Labeled Cell‐Surface Glycans

The targeting of metabolically labeled glycans with conventional MRI contrast agents has proved elusive. In this work, which further expands the utility of xenon Hyper‐CEST biosensors in cell experiments, we present the first successful molecular imaging of such glycans using MRI. Xenon Hyper‐CEST biosensors are a novel class of MRI contrast agents with very high sensitivity. We designed a multimodal biosensor for both fluorescent and xenon MRI detection that is targeted to metabolically labeled sialic acid through bioorthogonal chemistry. Through the use of a state of the art live‐cell bioreactor, it was demonstrated that xenon MRI biosensors can be used to image cell‐surface glycans at nanomolar concentrations.     

Substantial Influence of Temperature on Anchoring of Gold‐Nanoparticle Monolayer for Performance of DNA Biosensors

This paper presents a way of modification of crystalline gold surface with a high quality layer of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) via self‐assembled dithiol. The application of additional Au NPs monolayer prepared at various temperatures was tested with three types of biosensors previously described in the literature. The examined DNA biosensors differed by the detection method and the way of the immobilization of DNA probe at the modified gold electrode surface. For the immobilization of DNA probe in the sensing layer either the formation of SAM or the affinity binding (biotin – sterptavidin) or covalent attachment were used. The necessary condition of successful preparation of a perfect such monolayer is the preparation temperature of 4 °C. The preparation of Au NPs layers at higher than 4 °C temperatures leads to poor repeatability and unsatisfactory precision of the measurements. The application of the perfect Au monolayer lowers the detection limit (circa by 10 to 100 times) for all tested DNA biosensors.     

Composite Multienzyme Amperometric Biosensors for an Improved Detection of Phenolic Compounds

A biosensor design, in which glucose oxidase and peroxidase are coimmobilized by simple physical inclusion into the bulk of graphite‐Teflon pellets, is reported for the detection of phenolic compounds. This design allows the “in situ” generation of the H₂O₂ needed for the enzyme reaction with the phenolic compounds, which avoids several problems detected in the performance of single peroxidase biosensors as a consequence of the presence of a high H₂O₂ concentration. So, a much lower surface fouling was found at the GOD‐HRP biosensor in comparison with a graphite‐Teflon‐HRP electrode, suggesting that the controlled generation of H₂O₂ makes more difficult the formation of polymers from the enzyme reaction products. The construction of trienzyme biosensors, in which GOD, HRP and tyrosinase were coimmobilized into the graphite‐Teflon matrix is also reported, and their performance was compared with that of GOD‐HRP bienzyme electrodes. The practical applicability of the composite multienzyme amperometric biosensors was evaluated by the estimation of the phenolic compounds content in waste waters from a refinery, and the results were compared with those obtained by using a colorimetric official method based on the reaction with 4‐aminoantipyrine.     

Design of an Os Complex‐Modified Hydrogel with Optimized Redox Potential for Biosensors and Biofuel Cells

Multistep synthesis and electrochemical characterization of an Os complex‐modified redox hydrogel exhibiting a redox potential ≈+30 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl 3 m KCl) is demonstrated. The careful selection of bipyridine‐based ligands bearing N,N‐dimethylamino moieties and an amino‐linker for the covalent attachment to the polymer backbone ensures the formation of a stable redox polymer with an envisaged redox potential close to 0 V. Most importantly, the formation of an octahedral N6‐coordination sphere around the Os central atoms provides improved stability concomitantly with the low formal potential, a low reorganization energy during the Os^3+/2+ redox conversion and a negligible impact on oxygen reduction. By wiring a variety of enzymes such as pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)‐dependent glucose dehydrogenase, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)‐dependent glucose dehydrogenase and the FAD‐dependent dehydrogenase domain of cellobiose dehydrogenase, low‐potential glucose biosensors could be obtained with negligible co‐oxidation of common interfering compounds such as uric acid or ascorbic acid. In combination with a bilirubin oxidase‐based biocathode, enzymatic biofuel cells with open‐circuit voltages of up to 0.54 V were obtained.     

Substrate-independent transduction of chromophore-free organic and biomolecular transformations into color

The concept of synthetic multifunctional pores as substrate-independent optical signal transducers of chemical reactions is introduced with emphasis on the combination with substrate-specific signal generation in biomolecular transformations. Comparison with the general electrochemical transduction, known from conventional biosensors, and the general optical transduction of analyte-specific biomolecular recognition (rather than transformation), known from immunosensing, reveals the fundamental nature of the concept as well as an attractive complementarity to existing methods. Examples with transferases, hydrolases, lyases, and even an isomerase demonstrate that optical transduction with synthetic multifunctional pores is general far beyond the substrate-specific signal generators of electrochemical transduction, that is, the oxidoreductases, and absolutely unproblematic. In part very recent breakthroughs are used to highlight the remarkable promise of synthetic multifunctional pores as optical transducers of biomolecular transformation with regard to practical sensing and screening applications.     

Generating Selective Saccharide Binding Affinity of Phenyl Boronic Acids by using Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Corona Phases

Saccharides recognition is challenging due to their low affinity for substrates, yet this recognition is critical for human immunity and glycobiology. Herein, we demonstrate that a polymer or surfactant corona phase surrounding a single‐walled carbon nanotube can substantially modify the selectivity of pre‐adsorbed phenyl‐boronic acids (PBA) for mono‐, di‐, and poly‐saccharides. A library of 17 PBAs including carboxy, nitro, and amino PBA with ortho‐, meta‐, or para‐ substitutions are used to generate 144 distinct corona phases. Six in particular demonstrate significantly increased selectivity to specific saccharides including ribose (0.42 mol per total mol), arabinose (0.36), and glucose (0.25), but unusually diminished binding to fructose (0.02). Recognition proceeds by saccharide adsorption into the corona, followed by PBA reaction in a consecutive second order reaction. The results extend to larger saccharides, such as glycosaminoglycans, suggesting promise for protein glycosylation.