Nanoparticle displacement assay with electrochemical nanopore-based sensors

The proof of concept of a nanoparticle displacement assay that enables the use of large diameter nanopores for the detection of targets of smaller molecular dimensions is presented. We hypothesized that an inherent signal amplification should arise from the selective displacement of nanoparticles preloaded in a nanopore by a much smaller molecular target. The method is demonstrated using peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-functionalized gold nanopore arrays in which short DNA-modified gold nanoparticles are anchored by weak interaction. Complementary microRNAs are detected via the resistance change caused by competitive displacement of nanoparticles from the PNA-functionalized nanopores

Vectorially Imprinted Hybrid Nanofilm for Acetylcholinesterase Recognition

Effective recognition of enzymatically active tetrameric acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is accomplished by a hybrid nanofilm composed of a propidium-terminated self-assembled monolayer (Prop-SAM) which binds AChE via its peripheral anionic site (PAS) and an ultrathin electrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) cover layer of a novel carboxylate-modified derivative of 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene. The rebinding of the AChE to the MIP/Prop-SAM nanofilm covered electrode is detected by measuring in situ the enzymatic activity. The oxidative current of the released thiocholine is dependent on the AChE concentration from ≈0.04 × 10−6 to 0.4 × 10−6m. An imprinting factor of 9.9 is obtained for the hybrid MIP, which is among the best values reported for protein imprinting. The dissociation constant characterizing the strength of the MIP-AChE binding is 4.2 × 10−7m indicating the dominant role of the PAS-Prop-SAM interaction, while the benefit of the MIP nanofilm covering the Prop-SAM layer is the effective suppression of the cross-reactivity toward competing proteins as compared with the Prop-SAM. The threefold selectivity gain provided by i) the “shape-specific” MIP filter, ii) the propidium-SAM, iii) signal generation only by the AChE bound to the nanofilm shows promise for assessing AChE activity levels in cerebrospinal fluid

Ion-selective electrodes based on hydrophilic ionophore-modified nanopores

We report the synthesis and analytical application of the first Cu(II)-selective synthetic ion channel based on peptide-modified gold nanopores. A Cu(II) binding peptide motif (Gly-Gly-His) along with two additional functional thiol derivatives inferring cation-permselectivity and hydrophobicity was self-assembled on the surface of gold nanoporous membranes comprising of ca. 5 nm diameter pores. These membranes were used to construct Cu(II) ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with extraordinary Cu(II) selectivities, approaching 6 orders of magnitude over certain ions. Since all constituents are immobilized to a supporting nanoporous membrane, their leaching, that is a ubiquitous problem of conventional ionophore-based ISEs was effectively suppressed

Microfabricated amperometric cells for multicomponent analysis

Towards the development of multianalyte electrochemical immunoassays three individually addressable microelectrode array (MEA) type working electrodes and a reference electrode were integrated into a 4 mL volume, planar electrochemical cell. To model the simultaneous determination of multiple antigens in the cell with enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) glucose oxidase (GOx), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and b-galactosidase (b-GAL) were immobilized site specifically onto the individual MEA surfaces and the biocatalitic activity of these surface confined enzymes were evaluated by measuring the products of the enzyme catalyzed reactions directly on the gold MEA surfaces by chronoamperometry or by imaging the enzyme patterned microelectrode array surfaces by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM). ALP and b-GAL were selected as model enzymes because they are the most commonly used enzymes labels in ELISAs. In these measurements glucose, ascorbic acid phosphate (AAP), and p-aminophenyl-b-d-galactopyranoside (PAPG) served as enzyme substrates, respectively. The electrochemical surface area of the gold MEAs did not change during the multistep immobilization process. All enzyme modified MEAs presented selective and proportional responses to their substrates and the response characteristics of the enzyme modified sensors were identical in separate and simultaneous calibration protocols, i.e., there was no crosscontamination between the closely placed MEAs. The SECM images of the enzyme patterned MEA surfaces suggest that nonspecific adsorption is negligible on the insulating polyimide surface of the MEA separating the individual microelectrode sites. © 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH&Co

Potentiometric sensing of nucleic acids using chemically modified nanopores

Unlike the overwhelming majority of nanopore sensors that are based on the measurement of a transpore ionic current, here we introduce a potentiometric sensing scheme and demonstrate its application for the selective detection of nucleic acids. The sensing concept uses the charge inversion that occurs in the sensing zone of a nanopore upon binding of negatively charged microRNA strands to positively charged peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) modified nanopores. The initial anionic permselectivity of PNA-modified nanopores is thus gradually changed to cationic permselectivity, which can be detected simply by measuring the nanoporous membrane potential. A quantitative theoretical treatment of the potentiometric microRNA response is provided based on the Nernst-Planck/Poisson model for the nanopore system assuming first order kinetics for the nucleic acid hybridization. An excellent correlation between the theoretical and experimental results was observed, which revealed that the binding process is focused at the nanopore entrance with contributions from both in pore and out of pore sections of the nanoporous membrane. The theoretical treatment is able to give clear guidelines for further optimization of potentiometric nanopore-based nucleic acid sensors by predicting the effect of the most important experimental parameters on the potential response