Cong Qin

Experimental platform to study heavy metal ion-enzyme interactions and amperometric inhibitive assay of Ag+ based on solution state and immobilized glucose oxidase.

The heavy metal (HM) ion-enzyme interaction is an important research topic in many areas. Using glucose oxidase (GOx) as an example, a comprehensive experimental platform based on quartz crystal microbalance and electroanalysis techniques is developed here to quantitatively study the HM ion-enzyme interactions and amperometric inhibitive assays of HM ions. The effects of some common HM ions on the bioactivities of solution-state GOx (GOx(s)), electrode surface-adsorbed GOx (GOx(ads)), and polymer-entrapped GOx (GOx(e)) are comparatively examined on the basis of anodic amperometric detection of enzymatically generated H(2)O(2). Ag(+) shows the strongest inhibition effect among the HM ions examined, and the inhibitive assays of Ag(+) based on GOx(s), GOx(ads), and GOx(e) entrapped in poly(l-noradrenalin) (PNA) give limits of detection (LOD) of 2.0, 8.0, and 5.0 nM (S/N = 3), respectively. Inhibition effects of Hg(2+), Cu(2+), and Co(2+) are detectable only at 15 μM or higher concentrations, and the other HM ions show undetectable inhibition even at 1.0 mM. The developed experimental platform allows one to quantify the number of the bound HM ions per GOx(ads) molecule at various inhibition percentages. In addition, the electrosynthesized PNA matrix to entrap GOx for an inhibitive assay of Ag(+) shows the lowest competitive affinity to HM ions and gives the highest sensitivity, as compared with several other polymer matrixes commonly used for the inhibitive assay. The suggested experimental platform is recommended for wide applications in enzymatic inhibitive assays and quantitative studies of the inhibition effects of HM ions on many other redox-event-relevant enzymes.

High-performance amperometric biosensors and biofuel cell based on chitosan-strengthened cast thin films of chemically synthesized catecholamine polymers with glucose oxidase effectively entrapped.

Rapid oxidation of dopamine (DA) or L-noradrenaline (NA) by K(3)Fe(CN)(6) yields poly(DA) (PDA(C)) or poly(NA) (PNA(C)) with glucose oxidase (GOx) effectively entrapped, and such an enzyme-entrapped catecholamine polymer is cast on an Au electrode followed by chitosan (CS) strengthening for biosensing and fabrication of a biofuel cell (BFC). The optimized glucose biosensor of CS/PDA(C)-GOx/Au displays an extremely high sensitivity up to 135 μA mM(-1) cm(-2), a very low limit of detection of 0.07 μM, a response time of <3 s, good suppression of interferents, striking thermostability (lifetime of 3 weeks at 60°C and over 2 months at 30°C), and high resistance to urea denaturation. The biosensor also works well in the second generation biosensing mode with p-benzoquinone (BQ) or ferrocene monocarboxylic acid (Fc) as an artificial mediator, with greatly broadened linear detection ranges (2.0 μM-48.0 mM for BQ and 2.0 μM-16.0 mM for Fc) and up to mA cm(-2)-scale glucose-saturated current density. The good permeability of artificial mediators across the enzyme film enables the quantification of the surface concentration of immobilized GOx on the basis of a reported kinetic model, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry is used to measure the enzymatic activity, revealing high enzymatic activity/load at CS/PDA(C)-GOx/Au. A BFC is also successfully fabricated with a bioanode of CS/PDA(C)-GOx/Au in phosphate buffer solution containing 100 mM glucose and 4.0 mM BQ and a carbon cathode in Nafion-membrane-isolated acidic KMnO(4), and its maximum power density of 1.62 mW cm(-2) is superior to those of most BFC hitherto reported.

Fabrication of a chitosan/glucose oxidase–poly(anilineboronic acid)–Aunano/Au-plated Au electrode for biosensor and biofuel cell

Enzyme immobilization is one of the key factors in constructing high-performance enzyme biosensors and biofuel cells (BFCs). Herein, we propose a new protocol for efficient immobilization of a glycoprotein enzyme based on the interaction of the 1, 2- or 1, 3-diols in the glycoprotein with a boronic acid functionalized monomer. Briefly, casting a mixture of glucose oxidase (GOx) and anilineboronic acid (ABA) followed by a NaAuCl(4) solution to an Au-plated Au electrode surface yielded a GOx-poly(ABA) (PABA)-gold nanoparticle (Au(nano)) bionanocomposite, and chitosan (CS) was then cast and air-dried. In the present protocol, the small-sized Au(nano) or Au subnanostructures can form near/on the enzyme molecule, which greatly promotes the electron transfer of enzymatic reaction and enhances the amperometric responses. The thus-prepared CS/GOx-PABA-Au(nano)/Au-plated Au electrode worked well in the first-/second generation biosensing modes and as a bioanode in a monopolar biofuel cell, with analytical or cell-power performance superior to those of most analogues hitherto reported.

Amperometric enzyme electrodes of glucose and lactate based on poly(diallyldimethylammonium)-alginate-metal ion-enzyme biocomposites.

Sodium alginate (AlgNa) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) were mixed to obtain an interpenetrating polymer composite via electrostatic interaction and then cast on an Au electrode surface, followed by incorporation of metal ions (e.g. Fe(3+) or Ca(2+), to form AlgFe or AlgCa hydrogel) and glucose oxidase (GOx) (or lactate oxidase (LOx)), to prepare amperometric enzyme electrodes. The interactions of PDDA, Alg, and Fe(3+) are studied by visual inspection as well as microscopic and electrochemical methods. Under optimized conditions, the PDDA-AlgFe-enzyme/Au and PDDA-AlgCa-enzyme/Au electrodes can give good analytical performance (e.g. nM-scale limit of detection of glucose or lactate, and sensitivities > 50 μA cm(-2) mM(-1)) in the first-generation biosensing mode, which are better than the reported analogs using typical polysaccharide biopolymers as enzyme-immobilization matrices. The enzyme electrodes also worked well in the second-generation biosensing mode in the coexistence of p-benzoquione or ferrocene monocarboxylic acid artificial mediator. Biofuel cells (BFCs) with the enzyme electrodes as the bioanodes and glucose (or lactate) as the biofuel were also fabricated with satisfactory results. The proposed protocols for preparation of high performance Alg-based biocomposites may find wide applications in bioanalysis.