Search

A tryptophan (Trp) sensor was investigated based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of a molecularly imprinted polymer on a lysozyme amyloid fibril (MIP-AF). The MIP-AF was composed of aniline as a monomer chemically polymerized in the presence of a Trp template molecule onto the AF surface. After extracting the template molecule, the MIP-AF had cavities with a high affinity for the Trp molecules. The obtained MIP-AF demonstrated rapid Trp adsorption and substantial binding capacity (50 µM mg−1). Trp determination was studied using non-Faradaic EIS by drop drying the MIP-AF on the working electrode of a screen-printed electrode. The MIP-AF provided a large linear range (10 pM–80 µM), a low detection limit (8 pM), and high selectivity for Trp determination. Furthermore, the proposed method also indicates that the MIP-AF can be used to determine Trp in real samples such as milk and cancer cell media.

The selectivity in the simultaneous detection of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), and uric acid (UA) has been an open problem in the biosensing field. Many surface modification methods were carried out for glassy carbon electrodes (GCE), including the use of graphene oxide and amino acids as a selective layer. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to investigate the role of serine oligomers on the selectivity of the AA, DA, and UA analytes. Our models consisted of a graphene oxide (GO) sheet under a solvent environment. Serine tetramers were added into the simulation box and were adsorbed on the GO surface. Then, the adsorption of each analyte on the mixed surface was monitored from MD trajectories. It was found that the adsorption of AA was preferred by serine oligomers due to the largest number of hydrogen-bond forming functional groups of AA, causing a 10-fold increase of hydrogen bonds by the tetraserine adsorption layer. UA was the least preferred due to its highest aromaticity. Finally, the role of hydrogen bonds on the electron transfer selectivity of biosensors was discussed with some previous studies. AA radicals received electrons from serine through hydrogen bonds that promoted oxidation reaction and caused the negative shifts and separation of the oxidation potential in experiments, as DA and UA were less affected by serine. Agreement of the in vitro and in silico results could lead to other in silico designs of selective layers to detect other types of analyte molecules.