The Facile Preparation of PBA-GO-CuO-Modified Electrochemical Biosensor Used for the Measurement of α-Amylase Inhibitors’ Activity

Element doping and nanoparticle decoration of graphene is an effective strategy to fabricate biosensor electrodes for specific biomedical signal detections. In this study, a novel nonenzymatic glucose sensor electrode was developed with copper oxide (CuO) and boron-doped graphene oxide (B-GO), which was firstly used to reveal rhubarb extraction’s inhibitive activity toward α-amylase. The 1-pyreneboronic acid (PBA)-GO-CuO nanocomposite was prepared by a hydrothermal method, and its successful boron doping was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), in which the boron doping rate is unprecedentedly up to 9.6%. The CuO load reaches ~12.5 wt.%. Further electrochemical results showed that in the enlarged cyclic voltammograms diagram, the electron-deficient boron doping sites made it easier for the electron transfer in graphene, promoting the valence transition from CuO to the electrode surface. Moreover, the sensor platform was ultrasensitive to glucose with a detection limit of 0.7 μM and high sensitivity of 906 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², ensuring the sensitive monitoring of enzyme activity. The inhibition rate of acarbose, a model inhibitor, is proportional to the logarithm of concentration in the range of 10⁻⁹–10⁻³ M with the correlation coefficient of R² = 0.996, and an ultralow limit of detection of ~1 × 10⁻⁹ M by the developed method using the PBA-GO-CuO electrode. The inhibiting ability of Rhein-8-b-D-glucopyranoside, which is isolated from natural medicines, was also evaluated. The constructed sensor platform was proven to be sensitive and selective as well as cost-effective, facile, and reliable, making it promising as a candidate for α-amylase inhibitor screening.