Novel Amperometric Biosensor Based on Tyrosinase/Chitosan Nanoparticles for Sensitive and Interference-Free Detection of Total Catecholamine

The regulation of nervous and cardiovascular systems and some brain-related behaviors, such as stress, panic, anxiety, and depression, are strictly dependent on the levels of the main catecholamines of clinical interest, dopamine (DA), epinephrine (EP), and norepinephrine (NEP). Therefore, there is an urgent need for a reliable sensing device able to accurately monitor them in biological fluids for early diagnosis of the diseases related to their abnormal levels. In this paper, we present the first tyrosinase (Tyr)-based biosensor based on chitosan nanoparticles (ChitNPs) for total catecholamine (CA) detection in human urine samples. ChitNPs were synthetized according to an ionic gelation process and successively characterized by SEM and EDX techniques. The screen-printed graphene electrode was prepared by a two-step drop-casting method of: (i) ChitNPS; and (ii) Tyr enzyme. Optimization of the electrochemical platform was performed in terms of the loading method of Tyr on ChitNPs (nanoprecipitation and layer-by-layer), enzyme concentration, and enzyme immobilization with and without 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) as cross-linking agents. The Tyr/EDC-NHS/ChitNPs nanocomposite showed good conductivity and biocompatibility with Tyr enzyme, as evidenced by its high biocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of DA, EP, and NEP to the relative o-quinone derivatives electrochemically reduced at the modified electrode. The resulting Tyr/EDC-NHS/ChitNPs-based biosensor performs interference-free total catecholamine detection, expressed as a DA concentration, with a very low LOD of 0.17 μM, an excellent sensitivity of 0.583 μA μM−1 cm−2, good stability, and a fast response time (3 s). The performance of the biosensor was successively assessed in human urine samples, showing satisfactory results and, thus, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed biosensor for analyzing total CA in physiological samples.