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A simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of peptidase activity

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Abstract

In this work, a simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor was proposed for the detection of β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) activity. Firstly, the BACE1 specific peptide was modified onto the Au electrode to graft a single-strand DNA with polycytosine DNA sequence (dC12) via amide bonding between peptide and dC12. Because the dC12 is abundant in phosphate groups, thus it can react with molybdate to form redox molybdophosphate, which can generate electrochemical current. Using BACE1 as a model peptidase, the proposed sensor shows a linear response range from 1 to 15 U/mL and limit of detection down to 0.05 U/mL. The sensor displays good performance for the BACE1 activity detection in human serum samples, which may have potential applications in the clinical diagnostics of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Funding

The authors thank the support of this work by the Science and Technology Fund Project of Guizhou Provincial Health Commission (Grant no. gzwkj2022-207) and the Zunyi Science and Technology Plan Project (Zunshikehe HZ [2022] 383).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, 563003, Guizhou, China

    Tiantian Dai, Mingyue Qiu, Hongyu Li, Mingyan Yang, Jie Gao, Xinmin Li, Jiajia Lv, Zeli Yuan & Junjun Luo

  2. Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education and Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, 563000, Guizhou, China

    Tiantian Dai, Mingyue Qiu, Hongyu Li, Mingyan Yang, Jie Gao, Xinmin Li, Jiajia Lv, Zeli Yuan & Junjun Luo

  3. Guizhou International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base for Medical Photo-Theranostics Technology and Innovative Drug Development, Zunyi, 563003, Guizhou, China

    Tiantian Dai, Mingyue Qiu, Hongyu Li, Mingyan Yang, Jie Gao, Xinmin Li, Jiajia Lv, Zeli Yuan & Junjun Luo

  4. Key Laboratory of Hunan Province for Water Environment and Agriculture Product Safety, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Minghui Yang

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  1. Tiantian Dai
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  2. Mingyue Qiu
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  8. Minghui Yang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Minghui Yang, Zeli Yuan or Junjun Luo.

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Ethics approval

All experiments were in keeping with the guidelines of the National Institute of Health, China, and approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) of Zunyi Medical University.

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We also have received informed consent for all experimentation with human serum samples.

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Dai, T., Qiu, M., Li, H. et al. A simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of peptidase activity. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 2209–2215 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04628-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04628-4

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